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Essay on mandatory voting
Essay on mandatory voting
Essay on mandatory voting
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To enforce voting to be mandatory , this will prompt more Americans to pay attention to the choices for their representatives. Mandating would stimulate the demand side, motivating voters to understand and acknowledge who they are voting for. Therefore , voting is to be a responsibility than a option. Adding restrictions of voting such as implementing fines will utterly change the prevalence of our nature in our country. In source #1 (“Telling Americans to Vote , or Else) by William A. Galston, mandatory voting is straightforwardly civic. A democracy can’t be strong if its citizenship is weak. And right now American citizenship is attenuated-strong on rights, weak on responsibilities. In 1924, Australia adopted mandatory voting and required costly fines if individuals didn’t participate to vote but why pay a fine that is equal to a traffic ticket than to not register a simple vote. As Abraham Lincoln states, “Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish …show more content…
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
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
"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
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
Although it is possible to understand why some people might think that Americans should be required to vote. They could say that it gives non-voters political knowledge and the election turns out more accurate. However, the argument on the other side is stronger. Would you rather have an average size group of people who want to vote honestly, or a very large group made up of some people who want to vote honestly and some people who are angry about being compelled to vote? Well, no matter what side you’re on, Americans still should not be required to vote, because some people will not vote
Mandatory voting is the requirement to vote, or face a penalty (Bardeesy, 2011). Being forced to cast a ballot is not the solution to Canada’s voter turn-out. In fact, it might cause more problems for Canada as politics would become an election period routine. Also, if a higher voter turn-out is our goal, then mandatory voting is the correct approach, unfortunately, democracy is much more complicated than just a high turn-out. According to Alison Loat, the executive director of Samara, it is much more important to “figure out why
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.
Voting helps our country make hard decisions, but others want no part in it. Forcing all Americans to vote is an extremely authoritarian decision to make. It stuffs ballots with inattentive voters. If the government forces us to do unnecessary activities, our buzz among foreign countries will begin to blow hot and cold. Not only will it be very undemocratic of our government to force us to vote, but uninformed voters will be flooding polls as well.
Voting is very important in a democracy. It is important in a democracy because voting can be a symbol of popular support, and voting is a demonstration of consent of the governed. According to my research, Nearly 137.5 million Americans voted in 2016 and that is just 61%. Since we have low turnout. We have been always thinking about making vote mandatory. So should the vote required or just encourage people to vote? I think forcing people to vote and passing laws for a compulsory vote is not a good solution. The reason why it is a bad idea is that it doesn’t improve democratic climate, non-voters uninformed, and also requires a database. For these reason, Americans should not be required to vote.
One of the reasons why compulsory voting is that it is a means of addressing low voter turnout and compulsory voting should be mandated in light of recent and alarming statistics that have been released over the years on Canadian voter turnout. Canada has seen voter turnout drop over the last 30 years where it shifted from close to 75 percent to just under 60 percent in 2008 (Siaroff & Wesley, 2011). Provincially, the numbers are even worse with voter turnout dropping from 80 percent some thirty years ago to 40 percent in recent years (Siaroff & Wesley, 2011). In fact, in Alberta, the voter turnout was 40.6 percent in 2008, while Prince Edward Island had 84 percent and Saskatchewan managed 75 percent (Siaroff & Wesley, 2011). This is particularly concerning in Alberta when you compare it to some of the other provinces. In the municipal elections, the numbers are even shockingly lower. In Lethbridge the turnout is typically between 20-40 percent with recent by-elections only citing less than 15 percent, which is particularly concerning to democracy advocates (Siaroff & Wesley, 2011).
Just one vote can have a lot of significance. People who usually don’t vote in the United States are young, lower income citizens, usually don’t have the time to vote because they're working hard to get towards the middle class, or just uneducated about voting. Older and wealthier citizens tend to vote. Just imagine the benefits of mandatory voting it would most likely reflect the opinion of the whole nation, especially including the poor who tend not to vote when its elective. Also, it will decrease the likelihood of special interest having undue and extra influence on government policy. My position on voting is that voting should be mandatory considering it is the American right to vote. By making voting a mandatory law, this will make the American have to go to the poll to vote for this too should be the Americans duties and as a citizen to
Educated professors like Jason Brenna have sided with this matter, ¨...having a right to do something doesn't mean you should be required to do it¨ (Junior Scholastic). There are various reasons for eligible voters not to vote, maybe favoritism to any candidate running is null, or past experiences have proven an unhappy result. Different reasons have gradually piled up, which causes more people to not to vote, and it's perfectly okay because it is their opinion and right. Mandatory voting would only lead to protests and numerous non-voting fees. It would take away our freedom which America was founded
On the contrary that some people believe that voting should be mandatory, I disagree granted the understanding that many people have fought for the right to vote. Although Australia and different countries have the mandatory to vote, we would be breaking the 13th amendment this is a free country after all. For one thing many people have many different reasons for not voting such as lack of understanding, being busy with work and such, lack in trust in the government, and not caring much about the candidates. To point out you can not force people to vote if they do not agree with the candidates. Therefore, that is why we should not force people to vote just so they can be “better informed.”
A notable example was back in 1876, President Rutherford Hayes (a republican) beat Samuel Tilden (a democrat) by a 3% popular vote and a single electoral voter. People are furious about the results about these kinds of elections as it is, but when they hear that the guy seating next to them didn’t vote, they may go ballistic. Because the value of a single vote may be extremely vital to all involved in the country (or, on a bigger scale, the country). That one vote may elect a president who creates free community college educations to the financially needy, but not voting may strip away only chance at an education. But in the same instant, that one voter may force the rich to be taxed more and have them loose more of their hard earned money. Governmental matters effect everyone involved, notwithstanding directly or indirectly, in one way or another. So it makes sense that every citizen should vote, right? Since they are all effected in the end? While many residents may see it that way, it isn’t that black and white of a scenario.