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  • AADD Moderators: swilow | Vagabond696

Should voting be compulsory?

katmeow

katmeow

Bluelight Crew
Joined
Aug 20, 2002
Messages
10,089
Well, the election's come and gone and it's clear from the posts here that the bluelight community covers a wide range of opinions on politics - from those who are ultra passionate about a certain party's beliefs, across to those don't have the slightest bit of interest. Looking at the wider community, it also seems apparent that politics isn't a high interest topic for a large majority of the Australian population.

Compulsory voting has been brought up briefly in the politics thread, but I thought it deserved its own thread for discussion. I've always thought that many Australians take the freedom we enjoy in relation to voting far too lightly, considering many other people in the world don't enjoy this privilege. I'm curious to know whether people think that voting would be better left to the people who are actually interested and make an effort to make an informed decision, or is the present system satisfactory. I can see potential problems with various groups being mobilised for a particular party (like the religious right in the US), although I guess this is something that already happens under compulsory voting.

*~*~*~*

Do you think voting should be compulsory?

What reasons do you see for and against compulsory voting?

If voting wasn't compulsory, would you continue to vote?

At the moment, I'm rather torn on the issue of whether it should be compulsory. Obviously, I would continue to vote even if it wasn't.
 
I think voting should be compulsory.
Even though some people would argue that a true democracy does'nt force people to vote, it gives EVERYONE the chance to make a choice in who governs.
That to me is true democracy.
 
I think yes it should be compulsory,

FOR:

it makes everyone go and vote, everyone gets involved and in some part everyone makes a difference (regardless of how small)

AGAINST:

People use their votes wrongly, just voting for whoever is first on the ballot paper or even donkey vote, so not really giving everyone a chance on the ballot papers

last year if someone asked me if I'd vote if it wasn't compulsory I'd say no, but this year I've taken a huge interest towards the political stance in this country and this is the first year I've gone and properly voted. For Labour.

Now every year, regardless of it being compulsory or not I'm gonna make sure I use my vote properly and vote for who I see is the best for our country (and myself).

if that makes sense.
 
I totally don't think voting should be compulsory...especially after reading kits' latest journal entry....basically, we're making people vote who have no interest at all in who's in power, and so the people who get in are not an accurate representation of who the Australian people want...
 
i think it shouldnt be.... none of my friends give a stuff about whos in government, and they all come to me and say "johnny boy (my dad) knows heaps about this crap, come tell me who to vote for eze.... of course i let them copy me, because if they are going to vote, i think they should vote the evil little bastard out, but its supposedly a democracy, so why should my dads vote count about 15 times because my friends ask him who to vote for? its not even a group mobilising support for a canidate over an issue, they literally do not give a stuff..... i also find it unbelievable that in the week leading up to the election, alot of the country is still undecided on who they will vote for..... thats ridiculous, if you are going to make your decision based on the advertisements on tv during campaigning, u dont deserve a vote in my opinon..... i for one would continue to vote if it wasnt compulsory, but i know easily 50 people in my electorate who wouldnt bother..... just like voting is considered a right, shouldnt not voting be a right in a democracy as well? if people dont appreciate the right to vote, and dont want to use that right, why force them?
 
eze451: because if you don't force people then hardly anyone will vote and something similar to whats happening in the US will hapen here. The religious right have the MAJORITY of power in the US thesedays, and it's only because people were getting lazy and not voting and the religious nutters are getting their churches to vote.
 
Well boohoo....meanwhile we have well-meaning anarchists who are intentionally making their votes worthless because they don't see any point in it....not to mention dumb fucks who vote liberal because they think Little Johnny is with Labor....what's the difference?
 
The difference is that even the stupid people had their say. And the anarchists have their right to donkey vote.
 
^^^^Yeah, but if they're gonna donkey vote anyway, why should they have to vote at all??

And the stupid people DIDN'T have their say, they just thought they did...what I was referring to earlier was something I read in Kits' journal, where she said she overheard some woman saying "John Howard is with Labor, right? So we better vote Liberal". These people are clearly too fucking stupid to decide the future of our country, and while this might make me sound like an elitist asshole (trust me, I'm not), it would be better for them and us if they didn't HAVE to vote in the first place...
 
I also find the whole notion of anarchy in this day and age a joke. I saw something about the anarchists party, yet if they were to get into power they would become the same exact thing they despise so much.
 
I think if your an australian citizen you should have to vote. You should WANT to vote if you care at all about whats happening in your country and your right to freedom of speech. Then again if we made people vote more ignorant people would vote to suppose :\
 
^^^^I agree with that totally. It boggles my mind that there even IS an anarchist's party...


EDIT: PS that was meant for rm1x
 
i think it's a great system. you don't have to vote, all you need to do is go down and sign the electoral role at the polling booth. drop in a blank ballot, or sign your name and walk away if you don't want to vote.

the benefit is that our politicians don't waste millions of dollars as well and months of time trying to convince people they should vote (see the u.s.a. at the moment). it stops those who are too friggen lazy from not voting because they are too friggen lazy. if they have to go and register, most people who care enough will vote. it also means that we don't have 35% of the population electing the government for the entire country (again, see u.s.a.). i'm sure it also helps to reduce chances of electoral fraud.

i'm presently in saudi arabia and unfortunately put in my postal vote application too late, but i have been watching what little news i can (bbc & cnn) about the australian elections. the world media finds it mildly ammusing that australians have to vote (and the associated sausage sizzles), but in the end they all tend to agree that it's a good system and it works.
 
Voting should not be compulsory, I know too many people this year who didn't give a rats ass who won. As long as they got some Tang they were fine with who ever won. They deliberatly fucked their votes because they know fuck all about who has what to offer. So no, I don't think that it should be compulsory!
 
Yeah I agree with Global. Hadn't even thought about the money that would go into trying to convince people to vote.
 
Voting should be compulsory! When I was around 18 years old I felt that voting was useless and that I really didn't care who was in power...

Now that i'm quite a bit older and looking to buy a house and generally settle down... i'm quite interested in the political party and what they have to offer me.

I think the main issue here is you dont feel the leaders of the country represent anything you are interested in. However, for example, if Labour had got up and said if you vote me in .. i'll legalise E's and make then $10 each.. I bet you would be on the edge of your seats waiting to see who won the election... It's all relative.

Even if you are just throwing away your vote.. at least you are having your say.. no matter how bad it is.

We should feel fortunate that we live in a country where each of us can vote and each vote is counted...

F
 
I used to whine about voting not meaning a thing and it led to me not enrolling. After Howard was voted in for the second time I realised my viewpoint was stupid and enrolled for this election. Now I think it's pointless again. In a true democracy we would get a chance to vote for every single law that is going to affect our lives. And also on local environmental etc. issues of contention.

Instead in this farce of a democracy we get to vote for either a liberal PM or a labour PM and then we have to sit back and watch as they destroy the country for the length of their term. Then we get to do it all again.

That was off topic but I don't think voting chould be compulsory. And it annoys me that if all those retards who invest so much time in caring about how the fucking football system works took an interest in politics then we wouldn't be living in such a cesspool.

"You can vote however the fuck you want, But power still calls all the shots, and believe it or not even if (real) democracy broke loose, they'd just make the economy scream, yeah - 'til we vote responsibly"

- Propagandhi
 
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