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VBM and compulsory voting is basically the only way to get turnout > 90%. You can try to get people fired up about elections, but we're well past diminishing r

VBM and compulsory voting is basically the only way to get turnout > 90%. You can try to get people fired up about elections, but we're well past diminishing returns on that front. You can try to lower barriers to voting, but even in states like Oregon with auto-registration and VBM it's still lower than 70%. If you look at any place with > 90% turnout, they have compulsory voting. And once you have that you have a strong impetus to make voting as easy as possible, so you get stuff like holidays, VBM, early voting, etc. The fixes are obvious, simple, and they'll save money; Republicans just want turnout to stay low so we won't get them. End of story.

onychomys 8y ago
Minnesota had 78% turnout this year (for votes cast in our governor race, anyway). We have VBM but you have to request an absentee ballot specifically, and we have some early voting in person but it's not super widespread yet. Instead, what we have up here is civic pride. We've been the top turnout state for years, and we're darn proud of that.
- camgunz 8y ago
  Yeah Minnesota is unexplainable (although same day registration goes a long way), and yeah it is something to be proud of. But it's still no Australia, who in their lowest turnout year since adopting compulsory voting still broke 90% (I think it was like 92%?)
tomjen3 8y ago
Denmark has 85+ without compulsery voting, because we have more than one party. The US only issue is that you have fpp. Solving that will solve the rest, compulsery voting will just hide it and make sure it is never sold.
- camgunz 8y ago
  Yeah I do think there is definitely disillusionment in US politics that drives down turnout. If we did something like ranked choice voting that might help a lot, and if you think about compulsory voting without a robust set of political parties, it starts to feel a little corrupt. But Denmark is a lot different than the US. I don't mean to come off like a "USA #1" asshole here but there's maybe 6 million people there. It's a lot harder to set up an election system for some 200 million voters spread across thousands of miles of wildly different environments.
lolsal 8y ago
Your comment was interesting until the very last two sentences. Please don't make low-quality generalizations like that, punctuated with dismissal.
- softawre 8y ago
  If more people voted, we'd have more liberal votes. I thought this was a well understood phenomenon. https://www.businessinsider.com/what-would-it-look-like-if-everyone-voted-in-the-us-2016-11 https://www.businessinsider.com/what-would-it-look-like-if-e...
- camgunz 8y ago
  I get where you're coming from, but it's a matter of fact that Republicans at all levels of government are consistently against expanding voting access. Take some time and look at what happens to those bills. It's 100% a partisan issue. It shouldn't be, but it is.

onychomys 8y ago

Minnesota had 78% turnout this year (for votes cast in our governor race, anyway). We have VBM but you have to request an absentee ballot specifically, and we have some early voting in person but it's not super widespread yet. Instead, what we have up here is civic pride. We've been the top turnout state for years, and we're darn proud of that.

camgunz 8y ago
Yeah Minnesota is unexplainable (although same day registration goes a long way), and yeah it is something to be proud of. But it's still no Australia, who in their lowest turnout year since adopting compulsory voting still broke 90% (I think it was like 92%?)

tomjen3 8y ago

Denmark has 85+ without compulsery voting, because we have more than one party. The US only issue is that you have fpp. Solving that will solve the rest, compulsery voting will just hide it and make sure it is never sold.

camgunz 8y ago
Yeah I do think there is definitely disillusionment in US politics that drives down turnout. If we did something like ranked choice voting that might help a lot, and if you think about compulsory voting without a robust set of political parties, it starts to feel a little corrupt. But Denmark is a lot different than the US. I don't mean to come off like a "USA #1" asshole here but there's maybe 6 million people there. It's a lot harder to set up an election system for some 200 million voters spread across thousands of miles of wildly different environments.

lolsal 8y ago

Your comment was interesting until the very last two sentences. Please don't make low-quality generalizations like that, punctuated with dismissal.

softawre 8y ago
If more people voted, we'd have more liberal votes. I thought this was a well understood phenomenon. https://www.businessinsider.com/what-would-it-look-like-if-everyone-voted-in-the-us-2016-11 https://www.businessinsider.com/what-would-it-look-like-if-e...
camgunz 8y ago
I get where you're coming from, but it's a matter of fact that Republicans at all levels of government are consistently against expanding voting access. Take some time and look at what happens to those bills. It's 100% a partisan issue. It shouldn't be, but it is.