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Voting should be made compulsory
All citizens should be required to vote
Voting should be made compulsory
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Should Americans Be Required to Vote?
“Just Vote.” That phrase has been tossed around for years but what if people don’t want to vote? The United States of America is a democracy but many people do not vote. Since World War II, no presidential election has ever involved 65% or more of registered voters. Have you ever thought about the people that don’t vote and why they don’t vote? Here are three reasons why Americans should not be required to vote: Sometimes people can be irresponsible, government should not force us to vote if we truly don’t want to, and we need to respect people’s wishes.
One reason why Americans should not be required to vote is sometimes people can be irresponsible. Evidence supporting this reason is in, (“Must You
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Evidence of this is in, (“Must You Vote?”)(Randy Cohen) also states that “Those who obsess about voter turnout are perhaps the ones to whom we should pay the least attention.” This evidence helps explain why Americans should not be required to vote because, people shouldn’t be required to vote just because the government says so.
A third reason why Americans should not be required to vote is we have to respect other people’s wishes. Evidence of this is in, (“Peru Trip Report.”) (Jimmy Carter) states, “In 2001, 13% of the ballots in Peru were either blank or null.” This evidence helps explain why Americans should not be required to vote because, if 13 percent of the voter ballots in Peru were either blank or null, then what does that tell you about how some of the people felt about voting?
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
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.
In document C, John W. Dean who was legal council the the U.S. President Richard M. Nixon said, “While compulsion of any kind is a restriction, so is the compulsion to drive only on the right side of the road. Requiring citizens to vote is no more restrictive than requiring them to register for the draft. And it is far less restrictive than requiring us, for example, to attend school; to serve on juries, possibly for weeks or months at a time; to pay taxes; or to serve in the military when drafted”(Dean). That shows the multitude of laws or requirements in America that are less important than voting, but are required. Voting is for the good of the country, yet people won't vote, but won't bat an eye when they are forced into jury duty.
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
Should we have the freedom to chose weather we vote or not? Currently the United States allows citizens not to vote, but some believe that this makes our politics undemocratic. Some think forcing people to vote is against the freedoms we have today. In the following essay, I will give the views of Arend Lijphart and Austin Ranney about these topics.
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
The Chartist movement (a working class political movement) in 1840 believed “People had no one else but themselves to blame for the actions of their politicians” (Nash). What Mr. Nash and the chartist movement believe couldn’t be more on the spot. This country has gotten to the point where people find it hard to walk down their street to the elementary school where the voting polls are, and take a few minutes to cast a vote. A vote that millions of people around the world wish they were able to have them selves. With all the political suffrage that goes on through the world and people forced to love a leader, these no-shows should be thankful to live in a democracy. A place where elections aren’t rigged and the people are truly heard. This is why the topic of voting turnout needs to be raised. Also it’s very annoying to hear people complaining about our President when they did not even vote. It’s a very bad habit to not vote, and it needs to change with the younger citizens of this country. Helping younger people see the importance of voting needs to start with technological and educational ideas while expanding all the way to social event ideas. Only then will America’s ability to find answers to voting turnout increase.
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.
During the year of 1870, on the 3rd day in the month of February, the 15th amendment was ratified. The 15th amendment prohibits the denial of the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Basically, giving all United States citizens the equal right to vote. Thousands of brave men and women have made the ultimate sacrifice to defend the United States constitution that holds our rights. Not to mention all the hard work from several people it took to pass congress. So why not make voting mandatory? Mandatory voting will benefit the United States citizens by allowing everyone to exercise their rights, therefore, entitling us to have a say in the electoral process, possibly making a change to improve our country.
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.
Currently, voting is a right, but enforced voting isn 't such a dreadful thing to be a part of in the first place. There are various benefits of voting and for this reason mandatory voting shouldn 't be the strife that it is. A strong example would to review the advances that Canadian students would acquire from mandatory voting. In the event that mandatory voting was in operation, issues concerning young Canadians would be taken into consideration to a greater extent. Currently, the voter turnout for young Canadians is commonly known to be slowly declining. The voices of young Canadians are disregarded because parties will not stress over the concerns of individuals that do not engage in any form of politics, as simple as voting. Providing that, the voter turnout of young Canadians were to be higher due to mandatory voting, issues such as high tuition fees would be taken into consideration. Voting is and should be viewed as a pleasant obligation. Canadians are literally given the opportunity to decide who should govern their country and for this reason, the right to vote is only important if you use
Voting should be compulsory, countries that influence punishment such as Peru have a higher turnout. Peru’s voting turnout is 96% compared to the U.S.A’s voter turnout which is 57.7% (Doc B). To reflect, the country with punishments such as fines and limitations of rights have a higher voter turnout then a country with no punishments at all ( Doc B). Associated with voting is in debate of a civic duty, if civic duties such as jury duty and signing up for the draft into the military are mandatory why can't voting be (Doc C). If you don't do those two out of many civic duties are not executed you are punished. Put Differently, one reason that the United States of America citizens should have a penalty inflicted.
The most widely known reason or excuse for not voting is because voting is held on a Tuesday. Many Americans work and get caught up in the daily routine of work, school, family life, or simply forget at the end of the day. A lot of Americans argue that if voting was on the weekend they would vote. Personally, I feel this is a weak excuse and they could make time to vote. You cannot be penalized by an employer for taking time off to go vote. On the weekends, they could make excuses that they had family events, travel, chores, etc., and those reasons would keep them for going out to vote too. Another reason U.S. citizens are thought to not vote is because it is a two-step process to vote. You must register first and then vote later. In other countries you can register the day of and cast your vote immediately following. Another contributor to low voter turnout is because it is not a law to vote in the U.S. In Australia and Belgium, it is the law to vote and you can be fined for not voting. By implementing such a law in the U.S. would take away from what many people feel like is a vote; “not voting is a vote” and this would take away from their
In any case, abolishing the Electoral College would at least make every potential voter feels as if his or her vote counted. Third, perhaps the best way to solve the problem of low voter turnout would be to make voting compulsory. It was shown above that the nations which have compulsory voting, enforced or not, consistently have much higher voter turnout than those countries in which voting is optional. While perhaps the best way to fix the problem, this is also the solution least likely to come about in the United States. In conclusion, the problem with voter turnout is stemmed from many problems, but has many solutions that are probable and that we can put into effect to
midterm elections is particularly low. Required voting offers one possible, if radical, solution. Like any political institution, laws on it have multiple, if disputed, consequences. The average voter is incompetent at politics. The citizens who refrain are, on average, even more incompetent. Many people don't vote because they don't care enough or know enough of the politics to get involved, and there is no convincing evidence that mandatory voting increases voter knowledge. Simply put, people who vote tend to know more about politics than those who don't. It is worth asking why we would want low information citizens voting in the first place. Just so they're "involved" even if they're trudging to the polls to avoid a fine? If we force everyone to vote, the electorate will become even more irrational and misinformed. The result will not only will the worse candidate on the ballot get a better shot at winning, but the candidates who make it on the ballot in the first place will be worse. The people who are forced to vote against their will to avoid a fine, are just going to vote for anyone just to fulfill their commitment and not be fined, is that what we want? Is this what American is coming to forcing people to go to the polls just to check a box just to avoid a
As Americans, we must do something about voter apathy because not only does voting allow us to be active in the political process, it enables us to fulfill our civic duty and exert our political influence. Contrary to public opinion, every vote makes a difference in this process. It may not seem like it, but if more people began to vote, they would get noticed.