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Spartanburg SC | GoUpstate.com | Spartanburg Herald-Journal   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-26) Compulsory voting is a practice that requires citizens to vote in elections or to attend a polling place to get their name crossed off the electoral roll. An Australian news report says compulsory voting may skew the focus of a campaign towards swinging voters, with candidates and political parties trying to win the votes of the undecided, rather than motivating their "base" supporters to the polls. The mandatory voting for the elections to the Austrian National Council was abolished in 1992. www.goupstate.com /apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=NEWS&template=wiki&text=compulsory_voting   (1396 words)

Compulsory Voting in Australia   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-26) It is compulsory by law to enrol and compulsory by law to attend a polling place at election time. Enrolment and voting in federal elections was voluntary from 1901. Compulsory voting for Federal elections was introduced in 1924 and first used in the 1925 elections where 91.31% of the electorate cast a vote. www.australianpolitics.com /voting/systems/compulsory.shtml   (213 words)

Compulsory voting: a useful target for antistate action? by Brian Martin, published in The Raven, 1991 Compulsory voting, then, serves as a means to increase legitimacy for the state. Another was preferential voting: every voter was required to rank all candidates standing for a position with a sequence of numbers, from 1 to 2 or 1 to 100 depending on the number of candidates. Strictly speaking, compulsory voting is a misnomer: the elector is only required to cast a ballot, but it does not have to be a valid vote. www.uow.edu.au /arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/91raven.html   (4025 words)

International IDEA | Compulsory Voting Voting is not an intrinsic obligation and the enforcement of the law would be an infringement of the citizens' freedom associated with democratic elections. It is more constructive to analyze compulsory voting as a spectrum ranging from a symbolic, but basically impotent, law to a government which systematic follow-up of each non-voting citizen and implement sanctions against them. The diverse forms compulsory voting has taken in different countries refocuses the perception of it away from an either present or absent practice of countries to a study of the degree and manner in which the government forces its citizens to participate. www.idea.int /vt/compulsory_voting.cfm   (1347 words)

Compulsory voting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Compulsory voting is a practice that requires citizens to vote in elections or to attend a polling place to get their name crossed off the electoral roll. The term "compulsory voting" is actually a misnomer: because of the secret ballot, a person can only be compelled to cast a ballot, whether they have voted or not. Compulsory voting is common in states that attempt to create the illusion of democracy, while not actually being representative. en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Compulsory_voting   (985 words)

Philosophy, et cetera: Compulsory Voting All the evidence shows that compulsory voting is a sure-fire way to significantly increase voter turnout, and it may be the only means available for halting the continuing trend of declining turnout. Compulsory voting should be an anaethema to anybody with half a brain. voting souldnt be compolsory, and as a citizen of Australia i have found that most other citizens create "bad votes" because they either have ittle or if any interest in politics or are offended by the fact that their country has to force its people to do something that clearly violates its human rights. pixnaps.blogspot.com /2005/12/compulsory-voting.html   (2279 words)

Compulsory Statism Compulsory voting is an essential element of the democratic process and it has, since 1924, been the accepted practice in all Australian State and Federal Parliamentary elections. Compulsory voting helps to ensure the expression of choice at least by a majority of voters and to guard against the opportunities for improper or illegal electoral practices, such as multiple voting or bribing voters. Arguments for compulsory voting  voting is a civic responsibility of citizens in a democratic society. www.brookesnews.com /031408voting.html   (2219 words)

Electoral Reform Society - Compulsory voting By raising turnout, compulsory voting can make the governing party or coalition appear more legitimate, as its power is very likely to be based on the support of a greater proportion of the population. Indeed, in many countries, compulsory voting law isn't enforced at all; the hope is that the mere existence of the law is enough to spur people into turning out, without having to worry about chasing down the rebels later on. The point of compulsory voting is to reverse the burden of effort and expectation from abstaining to voting, and to add an abstention box rather goes against this purpose. www.electoral-reform.org.uk /article.php?id=46   (1488 words)

Make My Vote Count: Compulsory voting Archives Compulsory voting would not lead to everyone voting for the lefty parties because they've got nothing better to do because compulsory voting is absolutely not the thing of party politics. Compulsory voting could have a beneficial long-term effect if the number of blank ballots was so high that politicians realised that there were a whole load of voters out there casting blank ballots and waiting to be won over (like there are already), but this wouldn't happen. Compulsory voting is to New Labour what boundary changes are to the Conservatives: an admission of a problem which their crazy careerist eyes cannot recognise the real reason for. www.makemyvotecount.org.uk /blog/archives/compulsory_voting/index.html   (4518 words)

Elections Canada On-Line | Electoral Law, Policy and Research All other things being equal, turnout as a function of the number of registered electors is 13 percent higher in countries where voting is compulsory and penalties are imposed for failure to comply (Table 2A). In this case, compulsory voting does not seem to have any effect, whether enforced by penalties or not. This result does not seem very credible to us, in view of the fact that all previous studies have found that compulsory voting increases turnout and the fact that the abolition of compulsory voting in the Netherlands in the early 1970s effectively reduced turnout there by about 10 percentage points. www.elections.ca /content.asp?section=loi&document=macro&dir=tur/tuh&lang=e   (356 words)

Compulsory voting means ignoring Election Day is not an option Compulsory voting forces people to engage with their democracy -- maybe the United States should try a dose. The impact of compulsory voting on the dynamics of a national election is striking. For many Australians the beauty of compulsory voting is that it, as the APL paper notes, "plays a crucial role in reducing the social bias in turnout. seattlepi.nwsource.com /opinion/200837_compulsoryvoting24.html   (812 words)

Roblog » Compulsory Voting A system of compulsory voting has a number of benefits over a system in which voting is entirely optional. This prevention of restriction of access to the vote is particularly effective when coupled with the secret ballot, which prevents coercion of the votes themselves; the result is a political system that entirely lacks coercion of any form. The main arguments against the implementation of compulsory voting are, as far as I can tell, that it introduces apathetic “donkey-voting”—that is, voting for a randomly chosen candidate simply because one has to vote—and that it produces homogenous, centrist political parties. robm.me.uk /2006/04/22/compulsory-voting   (1084 words)

Compulsory Voting Compulsory voting means that every Australian citizen (18 years or older) is required by law to enrol and vote. Compulsory voting was advocated by Alfred Deakin at the turn of the 20 th Century Compulsory voting at federal elections was introduced in 1924. www.aec.gov.au /_content/What/voting/compulsory_voting.htm   (249 words)

Compulsory voting in Australian national elections Critics of compulsory voting have claimed that an increase in informal votes in recent elections is an indication of voters reacting against compulsion by choosing to leave their ballot papers unmarked. Compulsory voting has been used for many decades, and after such a long time in use no group or party can be sure of how, or if, it would be affected by the abolition of compulsory voting. Compulsory voting is a major civic activity, and being able to participate is a way for migrant Australians to know that they belong to the Australian family. www.aph.gov.au /Library/pubs/RB/2005-06/06rb06.htm   (10491 words)

Compulsory voting in Australia a democratic right or duty?   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-26) Australia adopted compulsory voting in 1924 to increase voter turnout. It is also compulsory to vote in local government elections, except in South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia. The Australasian Legal Information Institute verifies this loophole stating that legally, compulsory voting means citizens only have to have their name marked off the electoral roll and accept and lodge ballot papers. neovox.cortland.edu /oldsite/vox/vox_103/vox_103.html   (906 words)

Compulsory Enrolment and Voting - [2001] HotTopics 4 In practice, compulsory voting means eligible voters must attend a polling place, have their name crossed off the list of voters, accept ballot papers and lodge them in a ballot box. When voting in Federal elections was voluntary at the start of the twentieth century, the turnout averaged around 63 per cent. If voting were voluntary, the experience of countries like the United States is that poorer and less educated people would tend not to vote. www.austlii.edu.au /au/other/liac/hot_topic/hottopic/2001/4/4.html   (1841 words)

Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports | Hoon calls for compulsory voting Voting should be compulsory in Britain as a way of ending political alienation, restoring community and addressing the dangerous issue of "serial non-voters", Geoff Hoon will say today. He argues that voters should be entitled to spoil their ballot paper, so long as they attend the polling station, or if voting becomes electronic at least register their decision not to vote. Australians have been legally obliged to cast their vote since 1924 and are fined between A$20 and A$50 for failure to turn up. politics.guardian.co.uk /apathy/story/0,12822,1520779,00.html?gusrc=rss   (515 words)

Fruits and Votes » Blog Archive » Voting should be compulsory–British Institute for Public Policy Voting is compulsory in Fiji and the system is STV.* An older article by the Australian Parliamentary Library summarises the country’s somewhat troubled constitutional and political history. The real benefit of compulsory voting is that it kills dead the gap in socio-economic status between voters and non-voters, and that gap does survive the Power Inquiry’s empirical research, it just doesn’t translate into ignorance as a reason not to vote. In Australia the (conservative) Liberal party is generally in favour of voluntary voting because their internal research tells them they’d gain a 5% advantage from the SES gap. fruitsandvotes.com /?p=718   (2640 words)

Polemica: Non-compulsory voting: freedom of speech or negligence of responsibility?   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-26) While there is a penalty for not voting, people working on Saturday, for instance, are much more likely to make arrangements to vote than if there was no penalty for not voting. target the people most likely to vote for them and ensure they enrol, to the exclusion of those less likely to vote for them), and time that could be spent on formulating and introducing policy is instead wasted on getting people off their rear ends and into polling booths. Posted by: Guy at October 5, 2005 07:22 AM Howard trying to introduce compulsory voting is just one more reason for me to hate him. www.wsacaucus.org /archives/2005/10/noncompulsory_v_1.html   (1463 words)

ACT Electoral Commission - Fact Sheet: Compulsory Voting With the right to enrol and vote, comes the responsibility to contribute to the way the ACT and the country is run. Victoria enrolment in 1923 and voting in 1926. WA compulsory enrolment in 1919 and voting in 1936 but before that it was compulsory to vote in the secession referendum in 1933. www.elections.act.gov.au /FactCompVote.html   (362 words)

No compelling argument for compulsory voting - Opinion - smh.com.au Curiously, there's a widespread belief that voting is actually not compulsory, and that all you have to do is turn up on polling day and have your name marked off. A look at the relevant federal and state electoral laws shows that voters must vote, and voting entails marking the ballot paper to indicate whom you wish to elect. But if compulsory voting had half the benefits claimed for it, Australia ought to be clearly superior to other democracies in the eyes of the world. www.smh.com.au /news/opinion/no-compelling-argument-for-compulsory-voting/2007/03/23/1174597895398.html?page=fullpage   (858 words)

Gods of the Copybook Headings: Assorted Links: September 7, 2005 Compulsory voting at a very basic level would be a nuisance, like the bulk of government regulations on daily life. Compulsory voting would be one more step in the mandatory legitimization of Leviathan. I used to think compulsory voting was a recipe for geting more of the uninformed to vote. godscopybook.blogs.com /gpb/2005/09/assorted_links__2.html   (1980 words)

Compulsory Voting: Debatabase - Debate Topics and Debate Motions The labour party shifted to the right in the UK because no-one was voting for it; the majority of the population, from across the social spectrum, no longer believed in its socialist agenda and it altered its policies to be more in line with the majority of the population. If they are not voting it indicates there is a fundamental problem with that democracy; forcing people to vote cannot solve such a problem. The failure to vote is a powerful statement, since it decreases turnout and that decreases a government’s mandate. www.idebate.org /debatabase/topic_details.php?topicID=44   (935 words)

Compulsory voting | Liberal Review   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-26) The case for compulsory voting is being made by the Institute for Public Policy Research. Political parties, noticing this, tailor their policies to appeal to those who vote, further reinforcing the disincentive to vote amongst the disadvantaged because there is nothing in the party platforms that speaks to them. Not that many countries vote on week days to begin with, and the one that I know of which changed voting to the weekends in the hope that it would improve turnout (Ireland) found that there was a negligible increase. www.liberalreview.com /blogs/editor/compulsory_voting   (1926 words)

babble: Compulsory Voting It is a system where the votes are not bought by bribes (to be paid by taxpayers) and not influenced by media circuses, charisma contests and mud-slinging. Some people choose not to vote for any number of reasons but it all boils down to this: these people choose not to keep up with the issues, never read a newspaper or a newsmagazine, don't watch news programs or public affairs programs and never attend political meetings of any kind. The very strong correlation between education and voting is weakening, and the life cycles theory of voting behaviour is losing strength as increasing numbers of those outside the domain of youth choose not to vote (apparently, we don't "grow into" voting anymore). www.rabble.ca /babble/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=002315   (2292 words)

ePolitix.com - Hoon calls for compulsory voting Or if voting becomes electronic they should at least register their decision not to vote, the Commons leader argued. On compulsory voting Hoon said international experience showed this was the most effective way to increase turnout. And in Australia, where compulsory voting is enforced, turnout in recent elections was 92 per cent, he said. www.epolitix.com /EN/News/200507/69e8fdc0-6755-4f08-b7d8-9237bef6cca9.htm   (490 words)

Voter turnout, voter ignorance and compulsory voting - On Line Opinion - 19/10/2005 As much as some politicians would like to make voting voluntary in Australia, the fact that pollster Gary Morgan found that 71 per cent of Australians support compulsory voting, a level that has been maintained for the past 40 years, means the obligation to vote is deeply set into the Australian psyche. Australians, as do many other nationalities, appear to believe it is their moral duty to vote (although one could just as readily mount an argument that it is one’s moral duty not to vote, but that is a discussion for another day). They care about their duty to vote but do not necessarily go to the ballot box armed with much knowledge; but whether any voter in a modern democracy can ever have enough information to know all they need to know on all issues is highly unlikely. www.onlineopinion.com.au /view.asp?article=3822   (1507 words)

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