Yes, voting should be compulsory; every vote counts. –Pauline
I think this idea of compulsory voting is ill-thought-out. Better political education is what's needed in our society. Most people can barely distinguish between England, Scotland, Great Britain and the UK, let alone anything else. Most people have very little knowledge of our political institutions and systems, let alone the implications of policy decisions. With archaic titles like 'Master of the Rolls', the Punch and Judy show that is Prime Minister's Questions and inadequate political education in schools, what else is to be expected? It's been a problem for decades and continues to be so. Sort that out, and people will be more inclined to vote. –Janet
The era of high voter turnout was also the era when there was a choice between parties with genuinely different policies and economic approaches. When the only choice is between slightly different shades of conservatism, no wonder many voters stay at home. In the US, where the parties have been very similar to each other for much longer, turnout has also been low for much longer. Between 1910 and 2020, no US presidential election had a turnout above 65%, and those for mid-term congressional elections were always 5-10% lower.
I fear that compulsory voting is a sticking-plaster solution, and does not address the root of the problem. When the basis of economic policy is not at issue, voting can never have more than marginal effects on inequality. –Leo
The answer is NO! Until they introduced photo ID, I almost always went to my polling station. But given our dreadful voting system meant that voting for anyone I supported was largely a waste of time, and that the elections were often for posts I didn't think should exist, such as an executive mayor, I would increasingly spoil my ballot paper. But media reporting of results is in the habit of not including spoiled papers in the turnout figures, so I kept wondering why I bothered at all.
Compulsory voting would just be trying to enforce participation in a failed system. If it were introduced, I would very publicly refuse and campaign openly for others to do the same. Assuming I was then prosecuted, I would refuse to pay the fine. (Though I doubt many non-participants – including very public ones – would be prosecuted, if the precedent of the census is anything to go by, since doing so would raise awareness of the high level of non-compliance and likely increase resistance in the future.)
Compulsory voting would be, in effect, an attempt to enforce participation in, and validation of, a failed system. It's the one thing that would absolutely guarantee I would never enter a polling station. –Albert Beale
Voting should be compulsory, providing that:
(a) The voting system is some form of proportional representation or transferable vote.
(b) The ballot slip should not include a candidate's political affiliation.
(c) The ballot slip should contain a box labelled 'none of the above'.
(d) The returning officer should list the candidates on the ballot slip in random order. (I was in New Zealand, where they had compulsory voting. Many people simply ticked the first name on the slip. It was called 'the donkey vote', some candidates changed their names to 'Arnold Aardvark' to be first in the order.) –George P
Yes, voting should be mandatory to count as a true democracy.
–Jacqui
We have to make people believe that their vote will make a difference by bringing in some form of proportional representation, not bludgeon them into voting when they know their vote is useless. Doing so would mean we get a lot of 'Mickey Mouse' votes.
–Jill
The writer makes a fine case for compulsory voting (or rather, for 'compulsory' voting): 'By introducing compulsory voting here in the UK, we can bring those currently alienated, marginalised and ignored into the centre of our politics, to create first a more equal electorate, and ultimately a more equal society."
But if he's right about how the current electoral system favours the status quo – and I think he is – then it's hard to see how any government elected through that system would ever want to change it. In short, how can advocacy of compulsory voting actually bring it about?
–Bob
Compulsory voting would deceive people into voting for something when all parties serve the same masters, and those masters aren't the people. It's a pyramid scheme. But not for much longer.
–Anthony
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