{"id":10200,"date":"2011-11-09T14:33:43","date_gmt":"2011-11-09T14:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2011\/11\/09\/mandatory-voting\/"},"modified":"2011-11-09T14:33:43","modified_gmt":"2011-11-09T14:33:43","slug":"mandatory-voting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2011\/11\/09\/mandatory-voting\/","title":{"rendered":"Vote ‘No’ on Mandatory Voting"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following, from the Powerblogs site, was written in August of 2006 and is here re-published in redacted form.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a New York Times<\/em> opinion piece, Norman Ornstein advocates mandatory voting:<\/span><\/p>\n

     In the Australian system, registered voters who do not show up at<\/span>
     the polls either have to provide a reason for not voting or pay a<\/span>
     modest fine, the equivalent of about $15. The fine accelerates with<\/span>
     subsequent offenses. The result, however, is a turnout rate of more<\/span>
     than 95 percent. The fine, of course, is an incentive to vote. But<\/span>
     the system has also instilled the idea that voting is a societal<\/span>
     obligation.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is, however, a reason not to go the way of the Aussies and make voting mandatory. As it is here in the USA, roughly only half of the eligible voters actually vote. This is arguably good inasmuch as <\/span>voters filter themselves similarly as lottery players tax themselves. If I were a liberal, I would say that eligible voters who stay home 'disenfranchise' themselves, and to the benefit of the rest of us.  (But of course I am not a liberal and I don't misuse words like 'disenfranchise.')<\/span><\/p>\n

What I mean is that, generally speaking, the people who can vote but do not are precisely the people one would not want voting in the first  place. To vote takes time, energy, and a bit of commitment. Careless, lazy, and uninformed people are not likely to do it. And that is good.  <\/em> I don't want my thoughtful vote neutralized by the vote of some dolt who is merely at the polling place to avoid a fine. And if you force a  man to vote, he may rebel and vote randomly or in other ways that subvert the process.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, many refuse to vote out of disgust at their choices. My advice for them would be to hold their noses and vote for the least or the lesser of the evils. Politics is always<\/em> about choosing the least <\/span>or the lesser of evils. The very fact that we need government at all  shows that we live in an imperfect world, one in which a perfect candidate is not to be found.  Government itself is a necessary evil:  it would be better if we didn't need it, but we do need it.<\/span><\/p>\n

I support the right of those who think the system irremediably corrupt to protest by refusing to vote.  Government is coercive by its very nature, and mandatory voting is a form of coercion that belongs in a police state rather than in a free republic.  <\/span><\/p>\n

If you think that a higher voter turnout is a good thing, that is happening anyway  as divisions deepen and our politics become more polarized.  The nastier our politics, the higher the turnout.  And it will get nastier still.  So why do we need mandatory voting?  <\/span><\/p>\n

Fact is, we are awash in unnecessary laws.  We don't need more laws  and more government interference in our lives.  And will this law be enforced? How? At what expense?  Isn't it perfectly obvious to everyone with commonsense that  we need to move toward less government rather than more, toward more liberty rather than less?<\/span><\/p>\n

If you think about it, 'One man, one vote' is a very dubious principle. I think about it here<\/a>. Voluntary voting is one way of balancing the ill effects of 'One man, one vote.'  But isn't voting a civic duty?  I would say that it is.   But not every duty should be legally mandated.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Addendum<\/strong>: Re-reading the quotation above, I notice that Ornstein reports that registered Aussie voters who do not vote are subject to a fine if they don't have an excuse for not voting. One wonders if those eligible to vote are also legally required to register. If not, their system is a joke: one could avoid voting by simply failing to register! It sounds like an expensive bureaucratic mess to me in which the negatives outweigh the positives.<\/span><\/p>\n

References<\/span><\/p>\n

  1.http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2006\/08\/10\/opinion\/10ornstein.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin<\/a>    <\/span><\/p>\n

  2.http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/11\/06\/opinion\/sunday\/telling-americans-to-vote-or-else.html?_r=1<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following, from the Powerblogs site, was written in August of 2006 and is here re-published in redacted form. In a New York Times opinion piece, Norman Ornstein advocates mandatory voting:      In the Australian system, registered voters who do not show up at     the polls either have to provide a reason for not voting or pay a     … Continue reading “Vote ‘No’ on Mandatory Voting”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-social-and-political-philosophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10200\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}