Analysis Of The Article 'Telling Americans To Vote Or Else'

There is an argument in the article “Telling Americans to Vote, or Else”, that is written by William A. Galston. The article states that voting should be necessary for everyone. The author contrasts American voting with Australian voting. In the text, it says,

But consider Australia, whose political culture is closer to that of the United States than that of any other English-speaking country…Australia adopted mandatory voting in 1924, backed by small fines…for nonvoting, rising with repeated acts of nonparticipation. The law established permissible reasons for not voting, like illness and foreign travel, and allows citizens who faced fines for not voting to defend themselves.

This statement proves that Australia has similar political

culture to America. Although, in Australia, voting is mandatory, whereas in America it’s not. In addition, in Australia, if citizens don’t vote, they will face charges, unless a valid reason has been given, whereas in America there is no rule toward not voting. The author gives myriad reasons on the importance to vote. The author describes in the article that it represents the decision of most citizens, is impartial, democracy cannot be powerfully if the citizenship is weak, and other reasons to support his statement. Overall, the author argues on the beneficial of voting and compares it to Australia, where it is required to vote.