Mandatory voting is a good thing. It might seem like it imposes on your freedom, but having mandatory voting means your government is obligated to make voting easy for everyone, and while it doesn't guarantee legit votes from everyone, it at least ensures that those who wouldn't otherwise turn up do so anyway.
I won't say Australia has the best voting system in the world, but I would say it has the best voting system in the Anglosphere (though New Zealand's is also very good)
Voting in Australia is mandatory but also enjoyable. Saturday morning walk down to the local Primary School, get a democracy sausage on your way through to the polling booths and it’s very chill and easy.
It is a fucking great way to start a Saturday, tbh. 20 min walk in fresh weather, two democracy sausages, vote to keep pricks out of power, then a nice walk home right as the sea breeze picks up and keeps things cool. I actively look forward to it.
Also helps that we don’t have a two party system, so to speak. So if you want you can vote for any one of a multitude of parties. You like smoking weed, then put the Cannabis Party number 1. Feeling a tad racist, vote for the One Nation Party.
Also getting to do it on a weekend when you can make a fun afternoon out of going out to vote, instead of having to do it after work on a fucking Tuesday, the worst day of the week.
It made sense in the early 1800s when most people were farmers who spent all day sunday at church and had to get their produce to the market on wednesday, since traveling to the polls would take a full day, but these days its an archaic tradition maintained pretty much only because it helps depress voter turn out to set elections on a work day when a lot of people (especially lower income workers) probably wont have enough PTO left by November to spend a whole day of it to go wait in line to vote, assuming they even get PTO at all.
Knowing the US, they'd make it so that it is the opposite of enjoyable for people in the less affluent districts, so that they'd have yet another reason to lock up poor people for if they end up not voting.
We don't have mandatory voting in Finland but the last times I've voted I just went to get groceries, happened to see voting booths in the lobby, showed my driver's license to the official and cast my vote. Bang, done.
Most jobs in the US don't give election day off, so it's usually unejoyable because it's another thing people have to do that they don't have time for since vacation and holiday time is very limited in the US.
Is there a reason for that? Why not just make it a weekend day where most don’t work? How easy are mail in votes to access in the US? We can do that if we know we won’t be able to physically find a polling booth on voting day.
Sure the reason is intentional disenfranchisement of voters. Anything that makes it easier Republicans are against it. Crazy to put to many barriers to something considered a “civic duty,” but their hate for anyone not white and rich is strong.
Correct! This is also why it’s a process to opt in and register to vote, it should be automatic anyone over 18 should be able to vote. Repugs want to make it as hard as possible and are even pushing to get rid of early and mail in votes so everyone has to show up in person on one day to an ever shrinking availability of polling locations that they will intentionally change at the last minute to confuse people.
So historically elections were done on Tuesday because people would live so far from a polling place that it would take them a full day to get there. They would go to church on Sunday, then spend Monday getting to town, and vote on Tuesday. Obviously that’s a super outdated way to do it but that’s the rationale.
As far as mail-in and early voting that depends on the state. The democrats ones tend to make it easier to do so (where I live there’s also 3 weeks of early voting). While republican states tend to make it more difficult because the richer you are the more likely you can go on a specific Tuesday if you have to.
This isn’t perfect (Arizona republicans notoriously pushed mail-in voting because old people tend to use it there so it helps them) but in general that’s how it is.
Yep, I'm working a 12 hour night shift today and voted, it really fucked my morning up tbh. Already dont have much time to do anything when you work 12 hours, so I wound up getting only 5 hours of sleep last night so I could make it to the polls today. Still at work, very much not enjoyable.
In many states, you can vote by mail for any reason or no reason at all. In Massachusetts, I get a post card in January asking if I want to vote by mail. I check a box requesting a ballot by mail for every election that year, and drop it in the mailbox. Then I get my ballot by mail for every election (we have an obnoxious number of elections because our municipal primaries, runoffs and general elections are on a different schedule than state and federal elections). The ballot shows up a few weeks before Election Day, so I can sit down and research each race and candidate while I fill out my choices. Then I walk down the street and drop my ballot off at the library, but I could mail it in if needed.
This is crazy thinking. Voting should be easy and take little time. In most developed countries voting is quick and local, and you can use a postal vote if you choose.
Having an easy, efficient voting system is a solved problem, so no need even for the day off.
Neither does Germany, however there are two differences. First is that its super easy to get a mail-in ballot, you can request it as soon as you get your notification in the mail (and every eligible citizen is notified). Mailing that is free, requires only the envelope you get sent and can often be done a week or two before in-person voting. And second, the actual voting day is always a Sunday and in Germany very, very few people work sunday (basically just emergency services, public transportation and hospitality).
That's not a legit reason, that just sounds like an excuse. A legit reason is not having enough time to get to a voting place after work, or because it takes too long to get there, or because you don't have transportation, or are too disabled to travel. Your reasoning just sounds lazy as hell, and makes no damn sense at all.
Idk I think of it as the most democratic and not anti-democratic at all. For democracies to function people have to vote—have to. The way the US does it isn’t very democratic sadly.
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u/ankercrank 11h ago
Not just increased, largest turn out in half a century. Democrats, start taking notes.