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I'm not against compulsory voting, but I'd just like to add that I don't think it's necessary in order to get a good voter turnout. We have voluntary voting in

by tjogin 16y ago

I'm not against compulsory voting, but I'd just like to add that I don't think it's necessary in order to get a good voter turnout. We have voluntary voting in Sweden, and yet we get about 86% turnout. In the US, there are a number of problems with the voting procedure, too many to count really, I think facing and addressing those issues would be far better than making voting compulsory.

riffic 16y ago
this is by design.. obfuscate the process to discourage participation.
- devmonk 16y ago
  I think it is just incompetence. The more you spend time with government, the more you see that, even though we'd imagine they have things under control, they really don't.
cletus 16y ago
A few days ago there was a post on HN about how economists solved the problem of having prisoners live that were shipped from the UK to Australia 200 years ago: by giving the right incentive (paying for live prisoners at the other end and not just how many you load on in England). When voting is voluntary, certain groups are incentivized to encourage or discourage other groups from voting. This manifests itself as bribery, legitimate "get out the vote" efforts, making the process of voting difficult and so on. Basically you've created an incentive for such practices by making voting voluntary. All of that goes away when voting is compulsory. I'm reminded of the Spce Shuttle Challenger disaster in 2003. I saw a TV show about the investigation into that. After launch there was concern about the visible debris coming off the shuttle. The investigation afterwards showed that there was significant resistance within NASA to investigating that prior to re-entry. Certain people wanted to use satellite imagery to see if there was any damage to the shuttle. Other groups resisted. The reason this was contentious was that such practices weren't required. The solution? The investigation resulted in NASA instituting a policy requiring such imagery be taken of all shuttle flights. Once something is mandatory, all sorts of incentives (and the problems they create) simply go away.
- dctoedt 16y ago
  Nit: Space Shuttle Challenger was in 1986; Columbia was 2003.
- aralib 16y ago
  hm.. "the problem of having prisoners live" doesn't sound right.
smokey_the_bear 16y ago
I'm 28 and voting is important to me, but I've missed voting in three November elections because I didn't register in time. I've lived at different addresses every single year. The system is set up to dissuade renters from voting. Except in the few states that allow election day registration.

by tjogin 16y ago

riffic 16y ago

this is by design.. obfuscate the process to discourage participation.

devmonk 16y ago
I think it is just incompetence. The more you spend time with government, the more you see that, even though we'd imagine they have things under control, they really don't.

cletus 16y ago

A few days ago there was a post on HN about how economists solved the problem of having prisoners live that were shipped from the UK to Australia 200 years ago: by giving the right incentive (paying for live prisoners at the other end and not just how many you load on in England). When voting is voluntary, certain groups are incentivized to encourage or discourage other groups from voting. This manifests itself as bribery, legitimate "get out the vote" efforts, making the process of voting difficult and so on. Basically you've created an incentive for such practices by making voting voluntary. All of that goes away when voting is compulsory. I'm reminded of the Spce Shuttle Challenger disaster in 2003. I saw a TV show about the investigation into that. After launch there was concern about the visible debris coming off the shuttle. The investigation afterwards showed that there was significant resistance within NASA to investigating that prior to re-entry. Certain people wanted to use satellite imagery to see if there was any damage to the shuttle. Other groups resisted. The reason this was contentious was that such practices weren't required. The solution? The investigation resulted in NASA instituting a policy requiring such imagery be taken of all shuttle flights. Once something is mandatory, all sorts of incentives (and the problems they create) simply go away.

dctoedt 16y ago
Nit: Space Shuttle Challenger was in 1986; Columbia was 2003.
aralib 16y ago
hm.. "the problem of having prisoners live" doesn't sound right.

smokey_the_bear 16y ago

I'm 28 and voting is important to me, but I've missed voting in three November elections because I didn't register in time. I've lived at different addresses every single year. The system is set up to dissuade renters from voting. Except in the few states that allow election day registration.