Should we make voting mandatory?

[Senator Cris]

No.

[Tender Branson]

I don't think that would work well in this country, but I would support automatic voter registration and having ballots automatically mailed to all registered voters.

States with full Democratic control should be pushing hard for expanded voting rights in contravention to the Republicans and their voter-suppression tactics.

This. Mandatory voting was for years in our books and nobody remembers anyone getting punished for not voting. It's an unenforceable law.

But automatic registration of every person that reaches adulthood, that's a no-brainer IMHO and it could save a lot of money and time for both voters and states.

Automatic registration is hard to do in the US, as it lacks European-style (excl. Anglo countries) mandatory people registration at local town halls.

The US doesn't even have any system that covers near-100% of people, not even all voting-age people have a driving license. Besides, it would be hightly controversial to introduce it, because paranoid anti-government nuts (aka Republicans) would go onto the barricades.

That only leaves the implementation of same-day registration for all states.

What we see as common sense policies here in Europe does not work in the US ...

[Torie]

No. Anyway, it would take a Constitutional amendment to make it happen, since a statute would violate the 1st amendment, constitute a form of involuntary servitude, and is beyond the scope of the commerce clause (see the Obamacare decision), and thus the Feds lack the power to order it.

[Mister Mets]

I think it should be a choice.

It could raise some privacy concerns, if someone doesn't want to advertise why they're not allowed to vote (illegal immigrant, felony convictions, etc.)

I wouldn't mind compensating people who vote for the time and effort (IE- Full-time workers get two hours pay if they vote.)

[Mister Mets]

Perhaps, provided that ballots can be cast via mail or securely online.

Online would be the way to go if we can come up with a system to verify the person voting is the person they claim to be. Then we wouldn't need polling places with opening or closing times. People could just vote with their phones or computers from wherever they are, maybe in a 2-day window or something. People who don't have a computer or phone could have the choice of going to some kind of voting center or library, or they could just borrow a neighbor or coworker's phone for a second.

An advantage of mandatory voting is that it would be easier to detect voter fraud.

Fraudulent accounts would have to vote consistently. And it would be tougher to vote on behalf of someone else without their knowing it (something that's technically possible now.)

[Wisconsin+17]

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Uh. There's a reason democrats pass motor-voter, for the exact opposite reason. It's easier, not harder to conduct fraud.

[Gass3268]

Uh, mass voter fraud is a myth.

[Negusa Nagast 🚀]

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Uh. There's a reason democrats pass motor-voter, for the exact opposite reason. It's easier, not harder to conduct fraud.

Do you lobotomize yourself before you post?

[RodPresident]

Voting is mandatory in Brazil, but you can dodge it if you justify your absence only by showing at a poll station in other city than you vote. My mom vote in another city and justified her absence in Presidential run-off going to my poll station with a form that I downloaded in Electoral Justice. To justify after election day, you have only to show at a notary to pay a fine of R$ 3.50 (U$ 1.40) until 60 days. If you don't show for it, you'll get serious restrictions, like passport denying, no loans at state-owned bank, refused public jobs and studying at state-owned universities. This year abstention rate was 19.4% (highest since 1998 21.5%).

[Suburbia]

My old crazy professor emailed me saying, that people shouldn't vote. Period. She says leave it to the wealthy. Period. She's crazy, but oh well.

[Flake]

My old crazy professor emailed me saying, that people shouldn't vote. Period. She says leave it to the wealthy. Period. She's crazy, but oh well.

Quite the Federalist.

[zorkpolitics]

No, 1) Mandatory voting is an infringement on personal liberty.
   2) If voting was mandatory it would cause uninformed, uninterested people to vote
   

[morgieb]

I'm not sure if this is the best way to deal with it, but turnout rates are embarrassingly low and need to be improved.

[ElectionsGuy]

This forum talks all the time how Republicans are suppressing votes, but you guys want to take the other way around and force people to vote?

[Wake Me Up When The Hard Border Ends]

No, 1) Mandatory voting is an infringement on personal liberty.
   2) If voting was mandatory it would cause uninformed, uninterested people to vote
   

As someone who lives in a nation where voting is compulsory at federal and state levels, I can definitely agree with point #2, a lot of uninformed people will just donkey vote, or get their name ticked off and leave the polling booth.

[eric82oslo]

I believe Australia actually does this, so it's not just some crazy crackpot idea.

There would never again be an issue with "turnout."

Not just Australia. Brazil and Belgium are two other examples. Still, turnout is shockingly low in Brazil though. It's better in Belgium, yet far from 100%. I believe the average turnout in Belgium is somewhere between 85% or 90%. Correct me if I'm wrong.