highlyeccentric (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
highlyeccentric) wrote2012-11-07 07:38 am
highlyeccentric) wrote2012-11-07 07:38 am
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I would like to take this opportunity...
To express my love of compulsory voting.
You citizen? YOU VOTE. Or we fine you a small amount of money. You can hand your form in blank or draw butts all over it if you like, but you hand the damn form in.
Positive consequences of this system:
- voting on Saturdays, when more people are free to do so
- everyone recognises the government and general public responsibility to ensure that everyone has access to voting systems. We're not perfect at implementing that (see also: ratio of wheelchair-accessible to other polling places; low registration rates of rural indigenous people) but, y'know, if you're going to fine people for not voting you assume its your job to make it possible for them to do so
- on a similar note, more efficient absentee voting systems
- comparatively less time and money spent convincing people to vote at all (we spend some time and money educating people on how to register, where and when to vote, but we don't have to whip up voter enthusiasm JUST TO GET PEOPLE TO THE POLLS). People trudge down there, ignore the spruikers, and write something on a form. Lo, democracy!
- 'voter fraud' isn't really a thing. Insofar as it might happen, it consists of people voting in multiple places: it's not possible to whip up fear of people voting who shouldn't vote, because EVERYONE DAMN WELL VOTES
TL;DR, compulsory voting, I like it. I would endorse it for more institutions (eg: student unions! I never vote in union elections, even though I should. If my ACCESS card were to be disabled if I didn't vote, I'd damn well vote. I might even form an opinion).
You citizen? YOU VOTE. Or we fine you a small amount of money. You can hand your form in blank or draw butts all over it if you like, but you hand the damn form in.
Positive consequences of this system:
- voting on Saturdays, when more people are free to do so
- everyone recognises the government and general public responsibility to ensure that everyone has access to voting systems. We're not perfect at implementing that (see also: ratio of wheelchair-accessible to other polling places; low registration rates of rural indigenous people) but, y'know, if you're going to fine people for not voting you assume its your job to make it possible for them to do so
- on a similar note, more efficient absentee voting systems
- comparatively less time and money spent convincing people to vote at all (we spend some time and money educating people on how to register, where and when to vote, but we don't have to whip up voter enthusiasm JUST TO GET PEOPLE TO THE POLLS). People trudge down there, ignore the spruikers, and write something on a form. Lo, democracy!
- 'voter fraud' isn't really a thing. Insofar as it might happen, it consists of people voting in multiple places: it's not possible to whip up fear of people voting who shouldn't vote, because EVERYONE DAMN WELL VOTES
TL;DR, compulsory voting, I like it. I would endorse it for more institutions (eg: student unions! I never vote in union elections, even though I should. If my ACCESS card were to be disabled if I didn't vote, I'd damn well vote. I might even form an opinion).
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Some people are disenfranchised by the registration deadlines (which are... a week after the election is called? Something like that. I remember the Howard govt wanted to shorten them, because young people tended to vote against them). That's mostly young people, although you can register to vote any time after your 17th birthday. I presume that new citizens and people who've repatriated after 5 years or more overseas have similar problems, although I know certain interactions with the tax office trigger a nice letter from the government reminding you that you're obliged to enrol to vote / update your enrolment. If I had my way, you'd get given an application for a Medicare card and a voter enrolment form every time you applied for a new drivers' license or changed your driver's details, but we haven't got that far yet.
The other group we disenfranchise is people without birth certificates - that's mostly rural indigenous people, but a few non-indigenous people whose birth certificates were issued in wrong names, etc. There are ways to GET a birth certificate, or get it amended, but you have to fight the beaurocracy.
Still. That's a relatively small number of people disenfranchised by the electoral system, compared to the stunts the US pulls.
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This isn't actually entirely true.
If you moved recently, yes. If you moved a long time ago, and didn't bother/know to/get around to updating your enrolment, it's possible to be removed from the Federal rolls and only find out on polling day (basically, if the new occupant marks two confirmation of enrolment letters to you as return to sender, you're removed). I know at least one person disenfranchised this way. (As a bonus, this person was a naturalised Australian and had some difficulty re-enrolling because proof of citizenship is not as easy for them. In her case, a citizenship certificate was issued to her parents, not to her, so she must visit them to borrow it for chores like this.)
It's now quite hard to get removed from NSW or VIC state though, they use the drivers licence and electricity service databases to automatically update you. (So that part of your wishlist is coming true.) The Federal and State rolls sometimes get quite badly out of sync, see Antony Green on that issue.
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Actually, the Australian system sounds excellent. The Canadian system, where I have done all my voting to date, falls somewhere in between - no compulsory voting, but the voting system nationwide is totally uniform. No machines! All paper ballots! All voting sites must be accessible!
The one place where Canada really fails is absentee ballots. I'm living proof of the fact that you get officially disenfranchised by nasty letter if you live outside the country for more than five years and aren't a diplomat or in the military.
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(Voted precisely once in my life, spoiled my ballot every other time. The one time I voted was for the Lib Dems at the last general election. Boy, that turned out well.)
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Paper by preference, because the things that are possible with electronic voting machines terrify me. They ought to be at least as transparent and unhackable as electronic slot machines; from the sounds of it, it's actually harder to jailbreak an iPhone than to hack an electronic voting machine.
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If you get to a polling place and cast a blank ballot, fine, you've consciously made your choice to not make a choice. If you actually do have a preference but can't be bothered to make it to a polling place, that's not apathy, that's laziness (I'm not including people who for whatever reason can't make it to a polling place in that assessment, for the record). Laziness may be a valid choice too but at least call it what it is. And if you're really that committed to your laziness, fine, suck it up and pay the fairly small fine. In Australia I think it's about $20, which works out at £13. Or save your money and just go hand in a ballot.
And, as you said, if you have the opportunity to vote and don't take it, don't complain when politicians do things you don't like.
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I was having a big waffle over whether or not to vote in the Police and Crime Commissioner elections here in the UK, because I fundamentally don't think it's something the public should be voting on. I think it's a horrible idea that hasn't been thought through and won't work. But I'm going to turn up to the polling station, and I will cast my vote for the Least Awful Candidate. I considered spoiling my ballot, but it's a two horse race in my constituency and I would kick myself forever if the Most Awful Candidate won.
Right, precisely! There was a hilarious (well, only because it was laugh or cry) post somewhere on the internet with a whole load of people going "I don't want the government involved in any aspect of my life. I want them to leave me alone!" and I was just sat there going "well, you might want to move to a deserted island then. But don't drive to an airport because, you know, roads are to do with government. And you couldn't fly there either because of air-safety and such, and oh, the same for boats. And I'm guessing you won't want to send your kids to school, ever, or see a dentist or, oh, breathe because of clean air regulations. YOU IDIOT." And then I had to go and have a nap because I had raised my blood pressure so far!
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/sigh. Yeah, that whole attitude just BAFFLES me. Like, do you actually realise how much the government influences your life in all these tiny and convenient ways?
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And then people, in my experience, do the "oh, but I didn't mean X Thing or Y Thing ..." gambit, and that's stupid as well.
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Also, in the US individual states are determined to reserve the right to figure out what effort they will and will not go to, to help citizens vote. Constitutional issues; it's why we will likely never get compulsory voting. My god, the uproar over health care proves that there are a lot of Americans who are totally against good ideas.
Anyway, tales of interest. State of Maryland: is really awesome, they've had early voting for disabled citizens for months (my father's an election judge and has been going around with a pack of sworn volunteers and registering people and collecting their votes since before Romney became the Republican candidate), early voting (weekends too, they're very popular) for anyone else for several weeks, they're getting high returns of participation (...for America...), it's great. State of New York: lols at early voting because reasons, has no problems with voter fraud (nor does Maryland), and it took me 9 minutes door to door this morning.
I am surprised that compulsory voting isn't uniform in other institutions, though -- a lot of US institutions mimic state structures. *contemplates*
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And if it didn't, I'd give the (PAID!) person at the polling place my address (for the last council election it was 'do you live on THIS side or THIS side of the road? Right, over here) and they figure it out for me. If my nearest polling place is in another electorate, or I'm at work or I'm boarding at uni or I forgot to change my enrolment or I went on holiday or I travelled across town for shits and giggles, I walk into ANY POLLING PLACE and vote absentee. There are usually a few places (eg: Sydney town hall) where you can vote "in your electorate" for any electorate in your state.
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But that single roll and ability to access it from multiple points would be top notch ways to prevent voter disenfranchisement (provided the voter can travel, which is usually not the case), or account for disasters like Sandy. Right now, that's a major problem for a good chunk of the local elections on the eastern seaboard.
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um, i wish i had something more to of value to add, but i don't. i just wanted to add my +1.
(i also enjoy the idea of drawing bottoms. i might add that as a present to the counters on my next ballot form.)
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