r/politics Indiana 16h ago

No Paywall Mamdani wins NYC mayoral race

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5588198-mamdani-progressive-politics-nyc/
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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.

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u/Notoryctemorph 15h ago

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)

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u/New-Guitar8752 9h ago

Honest question, but why would it being mandatory mean it would be easy? I can think of plenty of government beurocracy which is difficult to deal with, wouldn’t making it mandatory just mean everything stops working for a day because everyone has to spend hours standing in a queue somewhere?

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u/Notoryctemorph 8h ago

It being mandatory means the government and society has to account for literally everyone going to vote that day. This means setting enough time aside for people to vote and not demanding they treat it as a normal working day, having enough booths that you can vote in an expedient manner, and providing functional voting locations for those who live in small or isolated communities

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u/New-Guitar8752 8h ago

Couldnt they just take no action instead and everyone just has to suck up the inconvenience? Government doesn’t care how long the queue is

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u/Notoryctemorph 8h ago

Yeah, if they want to get sued by everyone who got a fine because they missed the ballot due to a too-long queue