Should voting be legally required in the United States?

[elperromagico]

Would love to get everyone's thoughts on this.

[davepc]

1. Any person FORCED to participate in a political process

Is a subject and a slave, and not a free man.

[Placebo]

2. I'd Like To Say Yes, But...NO!!!

It's your choice if you want to vote or not, you can try and get people to the polls but forcing them is insane.

This would be like making abortion legal, sooooo if someone DOESN'T vote, they are breaking the law, and HOW DO YOU PROSECUTE THEM EXACTLY?

This is Amurka dammit, and you have the freedom to exercise your rights or NOT to exercise them.

[elperromagico]

4. The punishment I've heard proposed is a fine of $100.

The fine system is used in Australia and New Zealand, IIRC.

Of course, a lot of people can pay $100 in their sleep...

[Placebo]

6. What about poor people?

They can't afford an f'n penalty fine.

[elperromagico]

9. Well then, I suppose they'd have to vote.

I'm not particularly enamored of compulsory voting, but that's what it would come down to, really.

[Placebo]

10. Well thank god it will NEVER happen.

Because life just isn't that simple.

[elperromagico]

12. No, it isn't. And I like your Kerry pic.

:D

[bburton11]

14. I agree

I would like to say yes as well, but that would be opposite of what our country stands for. I believe voting is a citizens responibilty, one we should take very seriously and never miss out on. However we cant force someone to vote, and if you think about it that is kinda what is going on now "Vote for Kerry and die"

[aden_nak]

3. People who don't want to vote will just vote for any-damn-body.

Probably whichever lever/button is the easiest to activate. You'll have people walking in there and just thwacking away. Parties will fight over who gets to have their candidate on the left or right of the ballot. We keep saying that you can't bring democracy to a country by force. Freedom doesn't come at the end of the gun barrel. If it's true in Iraq, it's true here.

However, that being said, I wouldn't mind, say, a $100 tax credit for people that DO vote. It wouldn't be compulsary, obviously, so if you are a lazy bastard you could go ahead and not do it. And yeah, some people would still just pick anything to get their $100. But I think people would have a more positive outlook on it. They're be REWARDED, not FORCED.

[On the Road]

13. That Might be a Good Solution

I understand that voting is compulsory in many democracies:

Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Fiji, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Panama, Philippines, Singapore, Switzerland (partial), Uruguay, and Venezuela.

That's one reason turnout is so much higher in other countries.

I voted Yes with misgivings. Seems that Austria and the Netherlands have stopped compulsory voting. An incentive system might work better, although $100 per voter would amount to $15-20 billion each election.

[Worst Username Ever]

5. I voted no, but it seems to work in australia.

If you really don't want to vote, that is fine, but you pay a fine. To avoid the fine you just show up at the polling place and mark on your ballot "abstain."

[Nicholas_J]

7. No, after all.

There are some people who feel that none of the candidates represents their own personal political point of view. Why should someone have to vote for a candidate who they feel does not stand for what they want.

I do think everyone should be registered to vote, and that a separate registration priocedure should not be required. If you are resident of a state, there should be a registration procedure that is done along with your drivers license, and the license count as your voters registrations card. Do away with this having to be registered to vote at a particular polling district and let people vote wherever they happen to be nearest to during the day. If you work 30 miles from home, it would be easier to vote where you work not near your house.Fo those who cant drive, use the stte I.D. that most states have available through the drivers license bureas. This is photo I.D.
THis would also give considerable informmation on elelction day as to what percentage of people did not vote, and really could eleiminatwe many of the problems we have with registration. A non citizen gets a differnt drivers license, nmot linked to the VR databases.

If everyone were registered, during elelcitons if people wanted to, they could go in and vote for "NONE OF THE ABOVE" iof they wanted to make a point about none of the candidates representing them.

[Robbie67]

8. Forcing people to vote won't ensure that they're knowledgable...

about the issues. Making it a requirement would assure problems.

[aeolian]

11. absolutely not

the right to a non-vote as a protest vote is as fundamental as the right to vote itself. Voter apathy needs to be addressed, yes, but not by the threat of criminal proceedings.

Besides, think of all the pissed-off repubs who will be staying home this comming tuesday.

[pabloseb]

19. You can abstain as a way of protesting

And mandatory voting would actually benefit democrats, since youngs, black and hispanics vote in much lower numbers than whites. But that's not the point.

[robbedvoter]

15. Absolutely YES. If seat belts are OK, why nott this?

To the libertarians on the thread - only showing up is mandatory - you can still not check anyone - at least you had to think a second - wom't leave scars, I promise!

[pabloseb]

16. Guys, it's perfectly valid to abstain

People are NOT forced to chose between the candidates. They're just required to perform the most basic act of democracy. People are required to do many things to keep the country going, like paying taxes. For me, voting precedes that. Voting should be mandatory.

[cheshire]

17. Good God let's not drag up the uninformed.

[progressivebydesign]

18. It's legally required in Belgium, where my friend lives..

AND you have to do your duty as a poll worker once in a while, like jury duty.