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CNN reports that when asked how to offset the influence of big money in politics, President Barack Obama suggested it's time to make voting a requirement. "Other countries have mandatory voting," said Obama "It would be transformative if everybody voted -- that would counteract money more than anything," he said, adding it was the first time he had shared the idea publicly.
"The people who tend not to vote are young, they're lower income, they're skewed more heavily towards immigrant groups and minority groups. There's a reason why some folks try to keep them away from the polls."
At least 26 countries have compulsory voting, according to the Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. Failure to vote is punishable by a fine in countries such as Australia and Belgium; if you fail to pay your fine in Belgium, you could go to prison. Less than 37% of eligible voters actually voted in the 2014 midterm elections, according to The Pew Charitable Trusts. That means about 144 million Americans -- more than the population of Russia -- skipped out.
Critics of mandatory voting have questioned the practicality of passing and enforcing such a requirement; others say that freedom also means the freedom not to do something.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Daiv on Sunday March 22 2015, @01:21PM
I'll support any decision anybody makes on how they vote. My friends grandmother voted on the best looking candidates. Her right. However, I have wanted something for some time if the US implemented mandatory voting: The anti-vote.
Essentially a -1 vote. Instead of a vote FOR something, I want people given the chance to vote *against* something instead. Instead of having to pick the lesser of two or more evils, I want to vote down something or someone I disagree with the most. THAT could actually change things if implemented with mandatory voting.
Also, people, if you haven't learned by now to at LEAST check out your local elections, where there are issues that directly impact your daily life and you can vote for *or* against issues, you really, really need to. With the electoral college it is understandable to not vote for presidential candidates, but please find out what's going on in your neck of the woods.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RamiK on Sunday March 22 2015, @02:14PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disapproval_voting [wikipedia.org]
I will also add multiple votes per voter to the system. Something like 1x candidates - 1 votes to each voter. So, if it's just 2 parties running then each person will get only 1 anti-vote. 3 parties is 2 and 4 parties is 3 anti-votes and so on...
This will allow people to either effectively choose the party they really want into power by voting out the rest, or to effectively support a few parties through expressing their strong disapproval of the remaining parties.
This should also be exceptionally effective against demagogues and hatemongers since general disapproval will be vented out through the anti votes, while their radical supporters will not be able to vote multiple times for them. Additionally it will encourage people to qualify and quantify their choices in a way the current system doesn't.
compiling...