In Australia, there is a 90 percent voter
turnout for all elections. The turnout for
American voters in the 2016 presidential
election, by contrast, was 55 percent. Compared
to American politics, government participation
on this level seems impossible, but it is actually
quite simple. Voting in Australia is required by
law. First time non-voters incur a $20 fine, and
subsequent offenses entail a $50 fine. A similar
system would vastly improve American politics
by increasing voter turnout without actually
introducing any unmanageable obstacles.
An increase in voter turnout would greatly
amend our politics in general. Politicians would
be much more beholden to their voters, who,
without clearly seeing a benefit in the current
candidate, would simply change the leadership.
A candidate would no longer have the chance
to be reelected out of sheer voter apathy.
A standard gerrymandering tactic is to put
many voters that aren’t expected to vote in
districts with a few very active voters, so that
those few active voters can win a large district.
With mandatory voting, this unjust tactic would
be dismantled.
Australia regularly handles practical
concerns with ease. Voting is held on a
Saturday, and individuals who work on
Saturday have the day off. Religious groups
with views against work on Saturdays can and
do vote on other days. Voters who don’t vote
aren’t simply fined—they are sent letters asking
them why they didn’t vote. If they answer with
a clear reason, they aren’t fined. Not voting in
Australia is considered a form of protest, and
therefore acts as a vote in and of itself.
At the voting booths themselves, volunteers
make complimentary hot dogs. The voters have
a sense of community, that the votes cast affect
all of them as a group. It is a group effort, a
celebration of democracy. In the U.S., voting is
a chore that Americans only do when they feel
it is absolutely necessary, not as something that
is always vital to the health of the nation.
In America, we are more divided than ever,
and the idea of compulsory voting sounds far-
fetched. With the toxic feeling around voting
and the problem of ill-informed voters, it seems
like all of the forced ballots will simply be filled
with random answers that change elections and
make them unpredictable. However, according
to the New York Times, political scientists have
come to the consensus that the opposite is true;
when voters are forced to vote, they suddenly
feel as though they all do this together. This
means they tend to realize the importance of
their decisions, making them better-informed,
less populist deciders. Making voting universal
means we will see it as something to do
together.
