Should voting be mandatory?

[Bo]

Yes. That way people won't be able to complain about what their govt. does. And Australia and some other countries actually have compulsory voting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_voting

[CatoMinor]

Yes. That way people won't be able to complain about what their govt. does. And Australia and some other countries actually have compulsory voting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_voting

Since when is being able to criticize your government a bad thing?

[Vepres]

I don't want people who don't give a damn about who holds what office to vote.

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

HELL NO!

[Free Palestine]

No.  Most of the people who do not vote choose not to, either because the options don't suit them, or because they can't make it on election day, or they just don't give a sh-t, or because they're just retarded.  In the case of college kids, a combination of the last two.  The right to vote includes the right not to vote.

Taking steps to eliminate voter apathy would be a much better solution.

[Barnes]

You should at least be required to show up at the polling place. Also, there should be an "Abstention" option on the ballot.

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

You should at least be required to show up at the polling place. Also, there should be an "Abstention" option on the ballot.

Why should people be forced to wreck an entire day of their lives to take part in a meaningless exercise in futility? Life is too short to waste it waiting on line at the polling place.

[Barnes]

You should at least be required to show up at the polling place. Also, there should be an "Abstention" option on the ballot.

Why should people be forced to wreck an entire day of their lives to take part in a meaningless exercise in futility? Life is too short to waste it waiting on line at the polling place.

That's possible the most ridiculous argument against voting I've ever heard in my life. Please, Libertas, you can do better then that.

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

You should at least be required to show up at the polling place. Also, there should be an "Abstention" option on the ballot.

Why should people be forced to wreck an entire day of their lives to take part in a meaningless exercise in futility? Life is too short to waste it waiting on line at the polling place.

That's possible the most ridiculous argument against voting I've ever heard in my life. Please, Libertas, you can do better then that.

Um, you've never voted, or you'd know exactly what I'm talking about.

If it weren't for absentee balloting, I wouldn't have even voted in 2008.

[Barnes]

You should at least be required to show up at the polling place. Also, there should be an "Abstention" option on the ballot.

Why should people be forced to wreck an entire day of their lives to take part in a meaningless exercise in futility? Life is too short to waste it waiting on line at the polling place.

That's possible the most ridiculous argument against voting I've ever heard in my life. Please, Libertas, you can do better then that.

Um, you've never voted, or you'd know exactly what I'm talking about.

If it weren't for absentee balloting, I wouldn't have even voted in 2008.

Actually, I've been to a voting precinct on election day several times. I've also voted three times via absentee ballot. Granted, those were all assisting other members of my family.

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

You should at least be required to show up at the polling place. Also, there should be an "Abstention" option on the ballot.

Why should people be forced to wreck an entire day of their lives to take part in a meaningless exercise in futility? Life is too short to waste it waiting on line at the polling place.

That's possible the most ridiculous argument against voting I've ever heard in my life. Please, Libertas, you can do better then that.

Um, you've never voted, or you'd know exactly what I'm talking about.

If it weren't for absentee balloting, I wouldn't have even voted in 2008.

Actually, I've been to a voting precinct on election day several times. I've also voted three times via absentee ballot. Granted, those were all assisting other members of my family.

Finding time on a school/work day to go stand in line to take part in something that's essentially meaningless is not really conducive to most people's lives.

[SPC]

Rather than forcing people to vote, how about the partisan duopoly doesn't offer sh**tty candidates that discourage voter turnout?

[Free Palestine]

You should at least be required to show up at the polling place.

What exactly is the point in that?  How is being forced to show up at the polling place any different from being forced to vote?  That's just absurd.

[Barnes]

I'm not going to respond any further in this thread seeing as I'll get the same recycled "answers". 

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

I'm not going to respond any further in this thread seeing as I'll get the same recycled "answers". 

Well you never successfully refuted my answer in the first place....

As Morgan said, the idea of forcing people to show up at a polling place is utterly pointless.

[doktorb]

There is far more merit in dealing with the issues and causes of low turnout than forcing people to vote regardless. It does nothing. The political discourse in Australia and Belgium is no more or less deep, wide, advanced or mature because of compulsory voting.

"Hammer to walnut interfacing" is no fix to the democractic deficit in western countries.

[minionofmidas]

You should at least be required to show up at the polling place. Also, there should be an "Abstention" option on the ballot.

Why should people be forced to wreck an entire day of their lives to take part in a meaningless exercise in futility?

Only in fascist hellholes does voting take more than a couple of minutes.

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

You should at least be required to show up at the polling place. Also, there should be an "Abstention" option on the ballot.

Why should people be forced to wreck an entire day of their lives to take part in a meaningless exercise in futility?

Only in fascist hellholes does voting take more than a couple of minutes.

Maybe if you live next door to the polling place, there's no line to vote, no problems with your registration, and you have no job/school to be at. But it can be a serious inconvenience for most people.

[minionofmidas]

You should at least be required to show up at the polling place. Also, there should be an "Abstention" option on the ballot.

Why should people be forced to wreck an entire day of their lives to take part in a meaningless exercise in futility?

Only in fascist hellholes does voting take more than a couple of minutes.

Maybe if you live next door to the polling place, there's no line to vote, no problems with your registration, and you have no job/school to be at. But it can be a serious inconvenience for most people.

In this country, I've never seen anybody wait more than ten minutes, and waiting at all is rare except for an hour after lunch. It's all a question of how you organize your elections. Letting people vote on all sorts of offices that have no reason to be elective is obviously going to slow voting down, not having enough polling places is obviously going to slow voting down, using machines instead of paper is obviously going to slow voting down, holding elections on days when most people have to work is obviously creating inconvenience just for the sake of inconvenience. Doing all of the above is... just... well, it does make you wonder sometimes whether the purpose is to abolish elections by the backdoor.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     There is no conceivable reason why somebody should be forced to show up to cast a blank ballot & no good reason why somebody who knows nothing about politics & couldn't care less about the political process should be forced to show up at all.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Yes. It's shameful to see people abdicating their power to decide for their country's destiny.

[Franzl]

Yes. It's shameful to see people abdicating their power to decide for their country's destiny.

so naturally your answer is to make People do what YOU think they should....wonderful.

[doktorb]

Yes. It's shameful to see people abdicating their power to decide for their country's destiny.

so naturally your answer is to make People do what YOU think they should....wonderful.

I want more people to take part in elections. I don't want to FORCE them.

[minionofmidas]

It is shameful to see *cough* certain types of political persuasion banking on low turnout from people unlikely to vote for *them*.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Yes. It's shameful to see people abdicating their power to decide for their country's destiny.

so naturally your answer is to make People do what YOU think they should....wonderful.

Yes, I think voting is a duty when you have the chance to live in a country with universal suffrage.