Election turnout

I saw a glimpse of a news article recently that reported that only 37% of of the eligible population in Idaho actually voted this last election.
I was reminded of that this past week when I saw a headline about a bill in Oregon (something about GMO labeling) that was only 800 votes short of passing.

 

Make election day a national holiday and voting compulsory with a small fine if you don't.
That way if you choose not to you are doing it as a protest rather than indifference.

 

I once missed voting in an Ithaca school board election when I was in grad school at Cornell.

Other than that, I have never missed an election in more than four decades since I turned 18. That's well over 100 elections during that time. That includes primaries, city council elections, school board elections, presidential primaries, special elections to fill vacancies, millage elections, etc.

I have always been very skeptical of the idea of making Election Day a holiday. That might have been effective 50 years ago, but today, given the opportunity, a lot of people would just leave town. Changing it to Monday would create a 3-day weekend, and make sure that nobody would be around.

Compulsory voting works well in Australia.

Mail-in ballots work well in Oregon.

 

Voting is compulsory for Singaporeans as well.

 

So, I have two objections to compulsory voting. Probably more if I took time to think about it, but the top two anyway. First, making people vote isn't going to make them care. It's not going to make them more educated on the issues or on the people that they're voting for. All it would give is the person who won a false sense of legitimacy. Second, the way I see it, the right of free speech also means the right not to speak. I'm all for making it easier to vote, including the holidays and mail-in ballots that were mentioned (I'm military, and vote by mail-in absentee ballot anyway), but I don't think I'm for compulsion.

 

I like the idea of using mail-in ballots on a wider scale. I used to get those back in my active service days. I ignored them, but at least I had the option to send them back and vote for ballot measures on the other side of the country and politicians I all too often didn't know (or what they stood for).

 

Australians who don't want to vote just scribble on their ballots. They have a term for this.

I don't think any country in the world has the kind of insanely complicated electoral system that the US has, with an estimated half a million elected posts nationwide. Just where I live, I get to vote on almost a hundred different officials, from president to legislators to judges to college trustees. And as I mentioned earlier, elections are quite frequent, including primaries which select the party nominees to many of these offices.

Almost all other democracies use the parliamentary system, where overall party control is understood to be considerably more important than any one member. You're entirely free to disregard the personality or qualifications of the candidates for your local parliamentary seat, and simply vote for the one that represents the party or prime minister you support. And you're done.

A British voter might have a total of two choices to make: member of Parliament, and member of county council. That's it.

I suppose compulsory voting makes more sense when voting is extremely simple. It would border on the sadistic to require voters in this state to stare blankly at the long list of unfamiliar names of candidates for Court of Appeals judge, or university trustee, or township treasurer.

Besides, when voters have zero idea what they're doing, and there are no party labels, most of them will vote for the first name listed, or for the Irish name.

Yes, an Irish name is a huge advantage if you're running for an obscure office in this state. Our almost completely non-Irish voters apparently like to vote for the candidate with the "good Irish name".

 

I try to keep abreast of what's going on back home and do my research. I also call folks back home and get their personal experiences of policy to factor into my decisions. I think that's kind of my point. You have to register for absentee ballot, and if you don't care enough to at least do some rudimentary research on the topic, and/or don't even care enough to register, then I don't mind if you don't vote either. Frankly, I'm often shocked by the amount of the military that doesn't vote, seeing as how the people in office guide who and why we're fighting.

Actually, to expand on that, I don't understand the extreme dissatisfaction with elected officials that is down by a large part of the population, when put together with the low voter participation rate. I suppose it shows a widespread belief that no matter who you vote for, nothing's going to change. And I'm not really sure what the solution to that is.

 

The main thing I remember from the mail in ballots Oregon used to send me was the ridiculous number of choices for a thousand petty offices. That was complicated enough if you actually lived in the area, and felt meaningless when I was based in Florida and spent half of the year if not more floating around the Atlantic Ocean/The Med/Persian Gulf.
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I never actually registered to vote before leaving for the military. That was apparently a side effect of that whole "turn 18 and register" Selective Service thing.
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The past few Presidential elections the options given were in the "Would you have rather have arsensic or strychnine?" The choice of "Do I want to cast a vote for the candidate that I like but will get at most 3-5% of the popular vote?" makes it more of voting on general principle.

 

Yes, I think the media 'predictions' influence a lot of people and make them want to vote for the winning side. Now, the parties have do something to improve their image in the press, which can be difficult, or just needs to be explained better and defended against selfish & ignorant people.

I think the afternoon on election day should be a half day off. But, only if you show up to the polls, and if you do the work to figure out the issues and why you are voting for or against the issues.

 

I am a registered voter, and exercise this right as it is one of few remaining. in my county a person can influence change. some elections have been decided on less than 500 ballots. true change must start at the grassroots level ie locally. then gradually move upward to where the voice of the public can be heard and career changes made if not adhered to. as for the internet, I use this as a tool, an inlet for research and an outlet many other things, such as banking and retail purchases as well as entertainment and here with you voicing my views. I have believed that if I can put my money on line I can certainly cast my vote on line. withstanding the Presidency, all other elections are decided on popular vote. here is where the desired change will grind to a halt. the cold war wall between the public and the " elected" politicians dampens the opinions of those of us whom show some interest and concern. monies bonded for roads is moved to a discretionary fund, then we are asked to give again. city and state officials elected on one platform seem to migrate. laws are passed without public approval, such as, you may no longer in the middle of winter, leave your car unattended and heater running, not even in your drive way, its against the law and a ticketable offense. I will drone on no further, I say HELL yes to internet voting, lets make sure that every voice, that wants to be heard, is and accounted for.

 

It is called "informal voting". When you turn up on the day, they tick you off a list of registered voters - what you do after that with the pieces of paper used for voting is known only to you.

Our elections are always on a Saturday, so there is a whole lot less excuse NOT to vote. It is compulsory and there is a fine if you don't vote. Also, for state and federal elections you can visit *any* polling place in the state/country on polling day to vote, so unless you plan to be out of the country you are shit out of luck. Even in this case, you can vote at Oz consulates around the world and also do absentee (pre-polling day voting at specially setup centres) or postal votes.

 

forced to vote or you will be fined? I dont understand your system at all. here it makes a lot more sense, for example, it against the law to purchase alcohol on voting day. always a tuesday, so you have to take off work, therefor we all go out and buy all the alcohol we need to bride our community members well in advance

 

The only 'problem' with early voting is that it requires you to go to the main board of elections 10 miles away from me in the next town over. But, that is a necessary evil, because they are open for a few weeks ahead of time, on multiple days.

The first minute of this is spot on:

View: http://youtu.be/3p5kzwd7mZo

 

No, I don't think it makes better politicians - I think Democracy itself is flawed in that the election cycle forces politicians to do "popular" things rather than "the right" things. These often mean things are done for short term gain.

Compulsory voting also fosters people voting on headlines, rather than details, quite often to the detriment of everyone.
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I don't mind the mechanism of voting - ours is consistent/uniform across states, and it involves numbering box/es with a pencil, so is pretty foolproof. Anything incorrectly filled in is automatically an "informal" vote - I figure if you can't work out how it works, it is ok if your vote doesn't count.

Further, we have a 2 party preferred system - this needs an explanation:
Our ballot paper will list all candidates - lets say there are 3 of them, the voter numbers the boxes 1-3. Basically all of the ballot papers are grouped into piles of who is "1" on the paper. These are counted and the candidate who is 3 is removed from the count, but their papers are then moved into the appropriate pile based on who is numbers "2" on the paper. This works the same way for more candidates (i.e. if there are 10, the 10th one is redistributed across the other 9, and this continues until there are only 2 candidates left). The biggest "pile" wins! My strategy is to place the people I really don't want to win at the bottom of the numbering and work my way up!

We will generally have results within hours of the polls closing and it will only be a few marginal seats (where the few thousand postal votes make a difference) that take some time to settle. It actually works rather smoothly - unfortunately you can only vote for politicians

 

No option for write-in candidates?