Compulsory Voting


History of compulsory voting in Australia

• Compulsory enrolment for federal elections was introduced in 1912
• Compulsory voting for state elections was introduced in Queensland in 1915
• Compulsory voting at federal elections was introduced in 1924.

Arguments used in favour of compulsory voting

• Voting is a civic duty comparable to other duties citizens perform e.g. taxation, compulsory education, jury duty
• Teaches the benefits of political participation
• Parliament reflects more accurately the "will of the electorate"
• Governments must consider the total electorate in policy formulation and management
• Candidates can concentrate their campaigning energies on issues rather than encouraging voters to attend the poll
• The voter isn't actually compelled to vote for anyone because voting is by secret ballot.

Arguments used against compulsory voting:

• It is undemocratic to force people to vote – an infringement of liberty
• The ill informed and those with little interest in politics are forced to the polls
• It may increase the number of "donkey votes"
• It may increase the number of informal votes
• It increases the number of safe, single-member electorates – political parties then concentrate on the more marginal electorates
• Resources must be allocated to determine whether those who failed to vote have "valid and sufficient" reasons.

 

 

 

Gus: More than two third of the Australian population supports compulsory voting...

Voting is a right — not a privilege — like paying taxes...

In claiming that the abolition of compulsory voting would make our democracy ‘the plaything of cashed-up interest groups’, Prime Minister, Julia Gillard has surely managed to outdo Jenny Macklin’s farcical effort on the Newstart Allowance.

Given that cartels currently control our banking, energy, construction, grocery, telecommunications & media sectors, & given that there is not a skerrick of difference in the corporate interests being served by both major parties, how could the abolition of compulsory voting make things any worse for ordinary Australians?

Perhaps what the PM is really afraid of is that voluntary voting just might demonstrate what a farce our so-called democracy really is, given the strong likelihood that many would not even bother to turn-up on election day, if they had a choice?

Let's burn the place down... Let the pollies push sticks up our bums... Let the merde-och media run the country... Let the banks control our assets and let's live in comfortable squalor in our little holes from where we can shoot at passer-by with guns... Yeah, let the default civilisation take over... At least we'd have no worries but pains in our stupid brains that we could all fry with cigarettes, wine and drugs...

And politics would not be a bother since we could shoot all pollies dead, as soon as they stepped out of their bullet-proofed limos...

And by the way, let's have cakes... Down with democracy! Long live the headless kings...

 

from Paula Matthewson

...

Yes, this approach to civil engagement would be challenging and something that no democracy has ventured before. Is that a reason not to do it? Or is it easier to not do something because the US does it badly?

If we can make better coffee and pizza than the Yanks, why can't we make a better voluntary voting system too?

Paula Matthewson is a former Liberal staffer and lobbyist. Now she works in a communications role for the automotive industry and blogs on politics. She does not vote but always pays her fines. (Don't view her full profile here)

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Yeah, why drag people to the ballot box?.... We should delegate our vote to a flock of sheep with balloons, or baboons with booze bottles, or try to teach chimpanzees about the concept of democracy while they investigate both ends of their digestive track...

Actually, why not remove voting altogether and replace it with polls... polling about 1500 people every fortnight on a rotation basis should do it... 

Mind you, Paula, like Newman in Qld, should know that voluntary voting favours the conservative side of politics... Win-win for the tories... Let's pack our bag and go to Russia, like Depardieu... They give free kittens...

So Paula has chosen not to vote and pay the fines... So her advice on politics is worth squat. Why is the ABC promoting her idiotic views?... To help the tory side, of course...

 

 

WE OFTEN HEAR that Australia has a commendable record of electoral reform. Maybe in a distant past.

In a recent text by an ANU expert, Professor Ian McAllister, The Australian Voter – 50 years of change (UNSW, 2011) various claims are made that raise many important questions. The electoral system changes seem to have been inadequate. At best, one can say they haven’t kept up with changes in the society. The young have turned away from politics as a result. Although full of relevant statistical information based on twelve exhaustive surveys in the period, the book has left this reader wondering: why not make a case for urgent and major reform?

To begin with, the changes we have seen are actually quite minimal when we consider electoral system change.

The only real system change would be the introduction of the “above-the-the line” voting in Senate elections in 1984, which McAllister rightly describes as serving the self-interest of major parties. Early in the text, he also views the introduction of compulsory voting (in 1924) as belonging in that same category, clearly as distinct from the interest of voters. The effect of the 1984 change has been quite significant in one respect. Since that change more than 90% of voters have opted consistently for the “above the line” option.

According to McAllister, this change turned the Senate election into a kind of “party-list system” of proportional representation. This overwhelming voter response rejects the dysfunctional Table Cloth aspect of the Hare-Clark system of proportional representation. But it did not, in fact, become a party list system because preferences still need to be made. These are left to the party executives to sort out behind the scenes. Deals are made between them, even up to three kinds of splits are possible — and voters are generally unaware of these.

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/philosophy/democracy/voting-in-australia-re-engaging-the-young/