Required Voting

Anna Gregoline | August 17, 2004
Recent elections have been affected by small turnouts of eligible voters. Some democracies -- Australia, for example -- require their citizens to vote. Should such a policy be adopted in the United States?

Erik Bates | August 17, 2004
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John Viola | August 17, 2004
Death by Lethal Injection :-o

Melissa Erin | August 17, 2004
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John E Gunter | August 18, 2004
I don't know, a spanking from the incumbent President could cause some individuals to not vote!

Requiring citizens to vote sounds like a good idea, but can you imagine the logistical nightmare it would be to handle the punishment?

John

Anna Gregoline | August 18, 2004
Couldn't be any more difficult than finding tax evaders.

John E Gunter | August 18, 2004
Yeah, but do you really want to fund more government employees doing a poor job catching voters who don't vote with your tax money?

Granted, not all of them will do a poor job, but come on, we have enough problems with the behemoth that is our government right now!

John

Scott Horowitz | August 18, 2004
If it were required, would people still not vote? I think the problem isn't that people don't want to vote, it's getting to vote. I personally think Internet voting is a good idea (though people would argue hackign). But instead of worrying about leaving work, going to the polls on time, waiting in line, having a fat woman named Bertha with body odor look for your name on a list, doesn't entice people to go to the polls. But, if I can sit at my desk, log into a secure website, vote, and then be done, I would be happy (I still vote no matter what). I know one state did Internet voting (I want to say either New Mexico or Alaska don't remember which). But, like I said, if they could make it easier for people to vote, more would.

Anna Gregoline | August 18, 2004
No, I don't want to fund them. I'm not even advocating this - just presenting it for discussion.

I think eventually there will be some way to electronically vote. It has all sorts of potential for cheating though. Of course, our government is almost completely fascist anyway, so it doesn't really matter.

Melissa Erin | August 18, 2004
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Anthony Lewis | August 19, 2004
Required voting would not be good for Republicans. If citizens were required to vote, Dems would win every election. Figures I've been reading say that there are more registered Democrats than Republicans.

Anna Gregoline | August 19, 2004
Really? Could that just be a willingness to register factor? And a lot of people don't register, but always vote a certain way.

Melissa Erin | August 19, 2004
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Scott Hardie | August 20, 2004
Making voting mandatory would make it a lot more likely that some charming sleazeball (or charming incompetent) would get into political office because a lot of people would go for the easy vote, but that doesn't necessarily make the idea lose its appeal. Hypothetically, if we were to mandate voting in this country, might we also make election day a national holiday? We'd have to combine spring and fall elections onto a single date to pull it off, but we could do it.