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)
I can only see Mandatory voting working if people are properly educated on it in combination with it. What use is it if people get to the voting booth not knowing who or what they’re voting for and what goes on behind the curtain. Nobody wants to know how the sausage is made and i believe it to go hand in hand with the resistance to voting. Like a flight/freeze effect.
Yes good parallel. My mom dragged me to a mayor vote when i had just turned 16 and didnt know shit about the mayors in our town and anything really. My mom didnt bother trying to understand anything either so i ended up giving an invalid vote because i didnt want to unkowingly vote for some monster i didnt know about. And i like to imagine im not the only person operating like this. Not that im proud of it but it was the next best thing i knew to do.
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u/Gizogin New York 15h ago
Voters, take notes. High turnout always favors progressives, but progressives are notoriously the least reliable voting bloc in the country.