"There is a reason for the country to embrace mandatory voting, and it may be the most compelling: democracy cannot be strong if citizenship is weak," _William A. Galtson_. Mandatory voting, or compulsory voting, is a law wherein citizens are required to vote, or suffer the consequence. Australia has had compulsory voting since putting it into effect in 1924. "The turnout of Australian elections has never fallen below 90 percent since the introduction of compulsory voting in 1924," _Australian Electoral Commission_. Achieving over 90 percent of the citizens voting for nearly a century shows that mandatory voting is working in regard to getting people to vote. Governments should have mandatory voting because the people will educate themselves more, campaigns would have to focus on more groups in society, and everyone's opinions will at least be considered. …show more content…
Individuals who know they are required to vote will spend more time in preparation and consideration for whom they want as their next president, vice president, or member of parliament. Each person is aware that their individual vote counts. "If people are obliged to vote every election, they will most likely want to make the most of their votes," _Rick Edwards_. Citizens that know they are required to vote will not want to lose the opportunity to choose delegates. Since they know that everyone will be voting, it should be easier to find information on the candidates. A whole country that wants to educate themselves about the candidates, over time, should lead to a better selection of candidates. Future presidents would not want to run if they knew that all of the citizens of the nation wanted to find information on them, leading to more qualified
Recently, only 60% of registered voters have actually voted in presidential elections. This brings up the question: should Americans be required to vote? This question receives very mixed answers. Many Americans believe that they should have the choice and the freedom to vote or not; many Americans also believe that mandatory, or required, voting is simply a civic duty. Currently, American citizens are not required to vote. Citizens seem to like this system, but because voting is not mandatory, the amount of citizens that vote in elections is rather low. Americans should not be required to vote because it forces people to vote that are uninterested, makes citizens unhappy, and damages other people’s votes.
All in all, compulsory voting can seriously help out the United States of America. Although, forcing people to vote will make a lot more ignorant people vote for no reason, it will help get rid of those people by making them more intelligent in the world of politics, it will help rid fraudulent votes, and will help people realize that there are many more required things that are less important than voting. Compulsory voting will
The most critiqued argument is that mandating voting is just un-American. The con side argues that forcing people to vote violates our freedom of speech. But they don’t feel that the requirement to pay taxes and serve as a jure are unjust. This seems contradictory. The second argument is that requiring all citizens to vote would result in many uninformed and carelessly voters. They continue this argument by stating many people would cast “donkey votes” which are votes for a random candidate because they are required to vote by law. There are many arguments for and against compulsory voting but it comes down to what makes something
There is a way that is already put in use to increase voter turnout in Australia is to make voting mandatory. People in Australia are forced to vote or they will be fined, or even jailed if they do not vote repeatedly. It is very effective in term of improving voter turnout; however, there is still some argument against it. One of them being people would only vote because they have to, so they are ignorantly voting for the candidates just to be done with it. I completely agree with this idea. The voter turnout can be really high, but it would be meaningless if the people just vote to escape from the punishments. Yale Law School Professor Stephen Carter also suggested that, instead of punishing people do not vote, we should reward people who vote. It is the same with the mandatory voting. I think it will only be effective in increasing the voter turnout, but the results will not. People should vote voluntarily for the best and fair outcome. To have more people voting, I believe we should take a look at why people do not vote. We must assure people that if everybody thinks their vote does not count, then no one would vote. We should be able to change their attitude about their own votes. If people cannot vote because they are busy with work or schools, we should have a national day off on the election day. By doing so, much more people will be able to participate in voting. There should also be
Should Canadians turn to compulsory voting for answers? Many democracies throughout the globe, including Australia, Belgium, Greece, and Luxembourg, employ mandatory voting and report an average turnout rate of 90 percent ("Canadian Parliamentary Review - Article"). In light of this, establishing electoral participation as a civic duty seems pretty reasonable. Particularly considering the guaranteed increase in voter participation, it seems like the perfect solution. When examined father in-depth, however, one will discover the issue poses some
A compulsory voting system similar to the one used in Australia is not a system Canada should implement. Compulsory voting in the context of a democratic society can be a misleading term (Lever, 2010). Canada practices the secret ballot process in voting, and so it is impossible to verify if someone has cast a legally valid ballot. If countries have a singular goal of simply increasing voter turnout, compulsory voting could remedy this problem and it should be more accurately defined as being compulsory voter turnout (Lever, 2010). The belief that compulsory voting inherently improves democracy is misleading (Lever, 2010). Canada should not force its citizen’s to vote because other then increasing voter turnout, compulsory voting would infringe on the right of the voter to not vote, it would not lead to a more informed or engaged population, the legitimacy of government would suffer, and the resources required to implement and maintain the compulsory voting system would be extremely costly to the federal government.
First, one reason why Americans should be required to vote is that it will educate the citizens. Evidence supporting this reason is in “Unequal Participation: Democracy’s Unresolved Dilemma, American Political Science Review” Aaron Lijphart stated that “By compelling people to vote, we are likely to arouse in them an intelligent interest and to give them a political knowledge that do not at present possess.” This evidence helps explain why Americans should be required to vote because when citizens are required to vote it gives them a political understanding that they didn't have before voting. Most citizens will research
Non-voters contributing to the vote count will really make the difference by how votes determine who will be their representative. Since we calculate by the voters who actually voted and didn’t vote, would impact a huge difference in polls and the outcome of the elections. In source #2 (Why You Should Be Legally Required to Vote) by Noah Berlatsky, stated , “In the 2012 presidential election, only about 57.5% of eligible voters cast ballots. The 2014 midterm election had historically low turnouts. Only 36.4% of the electorate voted. That means nearly two-thirds of us didn’t bother to go to the polls.” If we implemented mandatory voting, these numbers would increase the number of turnouts in voting and essentially impacting the difference in how non-voters will make a difference if they partake in the elections. Each vote are important and casting our votes is a responsibility for our country to the
In fact, according to Elections Canada, during the 2011 federal elections, only 61.1% of Canadians exerted their duty as citizen. Hence, some think compulsory voting can remediate the situation. However, mandatory voting is what really could hurt democracy. By forcing every eligible voter to go to the polls, misinformed voters will randomly cast their ballot. Sceptics may believe that by fining individuals who refuse to go to the polls, there will be less ignorant voters. For example, in Australia, where voting is compulsory, Australians who do not cast their ballots have to “pay a 20$ penalty” (Australian Electoral Commission). However, by financially penalising citizens who do not exert their duty, many will be so dissatisfied by the incumbent government that they will simply vote for a party that would not make voting an obligation. These people would ignore the party’s other policies instead of being informed on all the challenges that the country faces and how each party plans on solving them. Nonetheless, the elections are an occasion to elect a leader whose ideologies on many aspects, from immigration to the environment, matches the voter’s most. As a responsible voter, one has to know the policies of each party and has to try to obtain enough “social-scientific knowledge to [assess] these positions” (Brennan 11), which takes a lot of time. Therefore, compulsory voting would make voters more informed, but only on a narrow aspect while ignoring the other issues that should be taken into consideration when choosing the party they will vote for. All in all, mandatory voting would hurt democracy despite the higher participation
On the contrary, citizens should be required to vote. For example, text 1 line 20 states "A democracy can't be strong, if its citizenship is weak"; therefore when being forced to vote against our own will, it is to strengthen our nation. In addition, if the turnout rates are high, then political parties reaches out to the citizens. As a result, the voices of the less educated and the poorer Americans will be heard and not ignored. Not to mention, William A. Galston states that voting evens out the inequalities stemming from income, education, and age in text 1. Most importantly, mandatory voting only benefits us a nation and individually. Clearly, compulsory voting should be enforced.
I believe that the single most important societal problem currently is voting right restrictions. November is quickly coming upon us, so does the right to cast our votes for whoever we believe to be the best candidate for the oval office. However, new voting right restrictions will make the voting process harder for certain groups. These laws will affect of upwards to millions of potential voters this coming election. We all have the right to vote. The government also has the right for certain groups to make that ballet harder to cast. The reason that voting right restriction is so important is because it stops numerous people from voting, a specific group of people were targeted, and the reason the law was made is wrong.
I asked for her opinion on the rights and responsibilities, I asked them in the order of the sheet, for the first one the right to vote. She agreed voting should be a right and you should always be allowed to vote for even the smallest things however she doesn't believe It should be compulsory. When it comes to voting for the priminister
This can lead to a terrible consequence which will seriously harm and interrupt overall aspects of the society. This indicates that those people have to pass over the choice to other people who have enough information and proper subjection, rather than just voting without any information or concern. Freedom of speech, press, and religion doesn’t mean that people should have religion and should express their voices toward the society. To sum up, as people have many kinds of freedoms, the right of voting is just a freedom to vote, not a duty to
Therefore, voting should not be mandatory because each individual should be valued over the collective good so that the government will run smoothly by assuring the citizens their
Some people have lack of awareness that voting is very important in order to develop their country. people need to know that their voting may change a lot of things to be best. in the other meaning, People should realize that not voting for the right person will give the opportunity to people who do not have the skill to occupy leadership positions in their community. One of the most important signs of some people's lack of awareness of the importance of participating in the elections is that some people think that their voting will not change who will be win in this voting. When everyone think like that , the result will be very different from what people want. The government should help people to know that each person plays important role in the voting through edification on the importance of voting for a person who deserves through the media and in schools and universities. In addition, people should change the wrong belief which is the voting is useless due to manipulation of results . This misconception among some people that prevents them from participating in the vote also indicates a lack of awareness that the elections are conducted according to the highest standards of credibility, especially in developed countries. Raising awareness and correcting some beliefs about voting will increase the proportion of people participating in