Do you think it would have detrimental effects?
Like doing your taxes every year, but instead of turbotax you use an app to review candidates and policies, and are required to do it.
Do you think it would have detrimental effects?
Like doing your taxes every year, but instead of turbotax you use an app to review candidates and policies, and are required to do it.
Comments
A lot of countries have compulsory voting, including Australia. How would it affect the US? Hard to say. Frankly, I’d imagine there would be a lot of trolls voting for stupid qualities in candidates. But maybe it would encourage us to teach civics better in high school.
It’s mandatory in Brazil and some people turn in blank ballots
There’d be a lot of people in comas who get punished for not showing up to vote. Or the weather or no vehicle or…
Also probably if mandatory a lot of write in votes for something like Bart Simpson or something… People who are forced to comply but don’t want to vote so they don’t want to whatever.
Don’t get me wrong people should vote if they feel strongly about something but forcing people who don’t care to do it people would start trolling the system
Voting is required by law in Australia. Elections are held on Saturdays and neighborhoods get together after voting to have BBQs.
The fine for not voting is only $20 AUD but what really makes people vote is that Australia makes it as easy as possible to vote. They have never had below 89% voters turnout since introducing mandatory voting.
Why would they do that? We need more voter suppression to stop all the uneducated idiots that are lazy to point of believing all the propoganda fed to them.
Evil
It doesn’t have much effect. Many countries makes it illegal not to vote, but there are not resources to enforce it.
In the US, you’d see a whole crop of first amendment lawsuits. Of first amendment lawsuits.
Not voting is seen as a function of free speech.
Ideally you would have ways to incentivize and motivate voters, for example mandatory paid time off for voting.
We would want to do something like a 2-week voting, where within that time frame you are given time to vote at no penalty as opposed to a single national holiday (which would negatively impact working class and hourly workers, like retail)
“If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal” -Emma Goldman
Jehovah’s Witnesses maintain political neutrality for religious reasons. They don’t vote for political parties or candidates, run for office, or participate in actions to change governments. This stance is based on their interpretation of biblical teachings, such as being “no part of the world” and relying on God’s Kingdom to solve worldly problems. However, they respect the rights of others to make their own political decisions.
I don’t know what the result would be but it sounds very communistic. Isn’t that what the Soviet Union famously used to do?
conservatives would get elected a lot less often, they actually have “making it hard to vote because most people wont vote for us” as a big part of their platform.
This would deprive the Democratic system with one of the most important signals for understanding whether or not an elected official has mandate. Even if you added a “none of the above” selection, you’re blunting the understanding of voter enthusiasm by compelling this action.
it doesn’t seem to improve anything.
Well….
I have never responded to a jury duty summons…. and im still here!!
Unless there are other sweeping changes to the voting procedures, it would be yet another way to attack the poor and undesirables.
Voting in the US happens on a workday, poor people can’t afford to take the day off. Even if the employer is officially required to give PTO for voting, that’s effectively useless in at-will states and often not enough time due to the long lines.
In areas that tend to vote against the local government, polling stations are often placed as inconveniently as possible with as little capacity as possible for maximum legal voter suppression. Plenty of people can’t stand in line for the x hours necessary for various reasons (medical, financial, environmental, etc). Even if you could get a medical exemption, poor people can’t afford to go to the doctor and get one.
Voter roll purges would mean everyone who was purges and denied voter registration now has to sue to get back on the roll, and/or defend themselves from non-voting charges after they weren’t allowed to vote. Courts would be overwhelmed, poor people won’t be able to afford an attorney, selective enforcement would be rampant, etc.
I’m all for mandatory voting, but you have to make voting possible and easy for everyone, first.
People would start changing their names to both first and surnames starting with As to catch the people who were just there because they had to be.
no point in having people vote who don’t know shit and probably just asking a friend who to vote for, that person probably has no clue either. I see no reason to even WANT everyone to vote, if they put no thought into it.
Well, considering this is The Internet, my best response is that it depends on the country or jurisdiction you are in.
I know of a couple of countries in Latin America where you have to pay a fine for not voting. Nothing too onerous.
In the USA, and many other countries, I would say that such a law would go against the very liberties that a democracy provides, and would get shot down by the judiciary branch. I mean, not voting can be a political statement you are entitled to make.
I doubt anything would change, after all nothing ever happens.
Personally, I’d just draw cocks on the voting slip to show my disapproval of being forced to part-take in that circus. Or purposefully vote for the worst candidate possible. My lack of vote is my vote.
I’m presuming that this hypothetical is referring to the USA?
You wouldn’t need to make it mandatory in order to increase turnout, you just need motivation and ease of access.
That could be acquired by having voting day being a federal holiday, having expanded early voting and mail in voting options, and by having more options for candidates that ACTUALLY represent what the people want (instead of choosing between the lesser of two evils).
The 2024 election had a turnout of 63.7%. Out of all eligible voters, more than 1/3 of them stayed home. For a country that considers itself the model of modern democracy, we’re doing pretty shit at it.
The majority of those who didn’t vote either didn’t have enough access to vote or didn’t think that their vote mattered, thus had no motivation to vote. That says something about us as a country, and what it says isn’t good…
If the USA wanted to be a true model of democracy, we’d have ranked choice voting, federal holiday for Election Day, federal regulations for employers to mandate that people could get time off to vote, lots of options for early voting (times, days, & locations), safe and secure mail-in voting, transparent counting and auditing processes, no gerrymandering, no electoral college, strong anti-propaganda/disinformation practices and we’d do away with the ability of oligarchs and corporations to basically buy elections with campaign donations.
It’s not hard. We just have lawmakers who benefit from a broken system and a wildly uneducated (civically speaking) voter population who are easily swayed by social media misinformation.
Unfortunately, until the American people realize all of this and take action to stand up, I’m afraid we will be FAR from experiencing true democracy for the rest of our lives.
I’d be happy if they just made election day a national holiday in the US so people could actually vote. But that’s might give the poor peasants who have to work all day more power, so..
I think it would be detrimental. People would not do their due diligence.
Among other things, it forces people to make a choice among awful candidates. Not voting is thus itself a form of voting.
It would be a sign that our government doesn’t care about Democracy. Democracy means having a right to vote whomever you want, which includes not voting
Here’s a better solution:
Election week should be a paid week off
you should be allowed to vote for none of the candidates(and the two party system needs to go)
Give people $10 for voting(and voting none of the above doesn’t count for the $10)
Everyone would have a Real ID or passport.
People who are poor, uneducated and ill-informed will vote left, and third party candidates will have a much higher chance of winning. Subsequently, every president from then on will always be a republican or libretarian, other parties like democrat or green will never be elected again.
People who don’t care about voting wouldn’t review shit. They’d just check boxes if forced to.
I think it would be very detrimental for which ever side votes this into law. The other side would just make it a platform issue. ” look, X party is the party of control. They want to tell you how to live your life, they want to control your votes…blah blah blah.”
I think your heart might be in the right place. More civic participation from Americans. It’s your system, you should participate. I totally agree but…most Americans are sheep. They want to go to work, come home and be left alone. “let me pay my taxes and live my life.
Personally, I’d like to see a change to our primary system.
Voting is required by law in several countries, for example Belgium and Australia. They seem to have no particularly outrageous consequences.
25 dollar fine
I wouldn’t want someone who doesn’t give a shit to vote, they are likely to vote terribly out of spite. What should be required are civic education classes that show everyone how these elections affect their day to day lives.
The republicans would throw an absolute fit because they would never win again if everyone voted.
Do you really want people who don’t understand nor care about things voting?
Just like there should be no right without corresponding responsibility, there should be no obligation without corresponding consequence.
By that, I mean that if it’s illegal to not vote, then there should be a ballot option of “NONE OF THE LISTED CANDIDATES REPRESENT ME” and, if 50%+1 voters choose that option, then none of the listed candidates / parties should be allowed to ever run again in any election.
Otherwise, there should not be illegal not to vote.
I would just vote for myself. Might as well be the same as not voting.
Many argue it’s a violation of the first amendment, as compelling someone to “speak” in the form of a vote isn’t freedom of speech. They would argue not voting is a valid form of protest that is now criminalized.
Most countries have compulsory voting, so you don’t even have to imagine this creatively.
A fine. In my country for example, it’s pretty laughable and plenty of people prefer just paying it. Must be said though, that voting always happens on non-work days, and everyone gets assigned a location to vote that extremely easy to get to from their own living adress…
For US? There’s a big difference between requiring people to stay informed and requiring them to vote. If accommodations
were made, both could work, but the idea alone would probably do more harm than good.
The app needs to work around people without phones or people who have disabilities like dyslexia and astigmatism. The voting requirement would be harder. The lines at any given polling place are already ridiculous, having it be a law would make them even worse. Then there’s the fact that voting takes place on a single weekday might make it hard for people (I think it should run Sat-Tues). They could maybe send a ballot to every home, but that could be hard for people without homes and I can’t see people afraid of voting fraud being okay with that.
There’s probably also some problems that I can’t think of. Idk these things could work but there’d need to be a lot of support and planning involved that I don’t think many people in the US would be willing to do.