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In Australia we have compulsory voting. Everybody has to get off their arse and do it (or at least go to a polling place, take a ballot sheet and stick it in a

by hugh 18y ago

In Australia we have compulsory voting. Everybody has to get off their arse and do it (or at least go to a polling place, take a ballot sheet and stick it in a box, you can leave it blank or draw a penis on it if you want). Personally I see both upside and downsides to it. On one hand it's a violation of my right not to vote, but on the other hand that's one of the more minor violations which the government by necessity commits anyway. The upside is that it leads to more moderate politics -- there's no need for the parties to appease the "base", so they always wind up fighting in the centre.

krschultz 18y ago
But if you have to be forced to vote, how much could you know about the issues? My vote is worth more at 1/130 million than at 1/300 million. Still pretty small, but I'd rather that than be swamped by people who haven't a clue (even though many are that way already).
- kaens 18y ago
  How does being forced to vote preclude you being informed about the issues? Furthermore, it doesn't really sound like they're forced to vote - it sounds like they're forced to drop a piece of paper in a box that may or may not express a vote.
bmunro 18y ago
Because it is compulsory, it is also very easy to vote in Australia. Most people can walk to their local school, community hall etc. There are places to vote absolutely everywhere. There are no queues to vote. You just walk in and vote. This year, I queued for the first time ever. there were four people in front of me, I had to wait maybe twenty seconds. Voting is always held on Saturday
- hugh 18y ago
  I'm guessing that the no-queueing is also due to the nice low-tech pencil-and-paper voting solution we have. I have no idea how many voting machines are at a typical US polling place, but I'm sure they can't serve nearly as many people in parallel as the Australian style little cardboard booths, where any decent-size polling place will have dozens of people voting in parallel. The bottleneck is at the place where they look up your name in a giant book (never a computer!) but I've never had to wait more than a few minutes there either.

by hugh 18y ago

krschultz 18y ago

But if you have to be forced to vote, how much could you know about the issues? My vote is worth more at 1/130 million than at 1/300 million. Still pretty small, but I'd rather that than be swamped by people who haven't a clue (even though many are that way already).

kaens 18y ago
How does being forced to vote preclude you being informed about the issues? Furthermore, it doesn't really sound like they're forced to vote - it sounds like they're forced to drop a piece of paper in a box that may or may not express a vote.

bmunro 18y ago

Because it is compulsory, it is also very easy to vote in Australia. Most people can walk to their local school, community hall etc. There are places to vote absolutely everywhere. There are no queues to vote. You just walk in and vote. This year, I queued for the first time ever. there were four people in front of me, I had to wait maybe twenty seconds. Voting is always held on Saturday

hugh 18y ago
I'm guessing that the no-queueing is also due to the nice low-tech pencil-and-paper voting solution we have. I have no idea how many voting machines are at a typical US polling place, but I'm sure they can't serve nearly as many people in parallel as the Australian style little cardboard booths, where any decent-size polling place will have dozens of people voting in parallel. The bottleneck is at the place where they look up your name in a giant book (never a computer!) but I've never had to wait more than a few minutes there either.