At a town hall event in Cleveland last Wednesday, President Obama (nearly) said the US should make voting compulsory, like it is in Australia. Eleven countries, including Australia, Brazil, and Singapore, enforce compulsory voting laws. Another 11 have compulsory voting laws, but don’t enforce them.
The response to Obamaâs suggestion was predictable. Fox News host Andrea Tantaros along with her fellow panelists on the show âOutnumberedâ on Thursday, bashed Mr. Obamaâs suggestion, saying:
Do we really want everybody voting? I donât think so.
Co-host Melissa Francis said:
If youâre not engaged enough to vote, please donât…Stay home.
Meanwhile, another co-host, Harris Faulkner, argued that mandatory voting would be un-American because our military:
Fought for our right to decide for ourselves.
Whatever that means. The Wrongologist does not support mandatory voting, but not for the vacuous reasons you might hear on Fox News.
Compulsory voting raises questions. First, is voting a right or a duty? If it is a right, then participation in elections is voluntary. If it is a duty, then participation should be mandatory. In countries where voting is considered a duty, voting is compulsory and is regulated in their constitutions. Some countries impose sanctions (like a fine) on non-voters.
Second, what would happen if all citizens voted? Studies show that turnout increases quite a bit. A Harvard study indicated that there are secondary gains as well:
⢠Compulsory voting could reduce the role of money in politics. Political parties would not spend as much money on their get-out-the-vote efforts since high turn-out would already be ensured and would be fairly inelastic
⢠It might increase political awareness and engagement. Compulsory voting would change the ways in which candidates and political parties develop campaign strategies. For example, it might lead to fewer negative campaigns featuring attack ads
⢠Compulsory voting might increase government’s relevance by bringing in groups that are underrepresented among todayâs voters, since the population that shows up for US elections is whiter, older, richer and more educated than the general population
But, America is a place where our âright to be left aloneâ is foundational. Would being legally compelled to vote deprive anyone of a part of their liberty? Yes, if you believe voting is a right, not a duty. And how big would that âdeprivationâ be, compared to what we have already lost of our 1st and 4th Amendment rights since 9/11?
Perhaps the final question is: Isnât one goal of a representative democracy to maximize voter participation? Today, registering to vote isn’t easy for every American, but it ought to be. It shouldn’t be the job of the individual election boards to say who is worthy of registration.
It should be the state’s responsibility to issue every citizen a voter registration card. If the state wants to maximize voter participation, it should mail a voter ID card to each of us. How we would deal with those of us who slip through the cracks would need to be worked out.
We have seen the way that barriers to voting emerge. They create enough of a hurdle that a significant percentage of voters fail to clear it. It is not a terrible thing to demand that we have eligibility requirements for voters, but they are often enforced inequitably, and are enough of a nuisance that a significant minority will end up not voting. For the past decade in America, many individual states have been raising barriers, because barriers to voting confer partisan advantage. With mandatory voter registration, the stateâs job would be to reduce the barriers to the lowest possible level.
It is arguable if citizens should be compelled to vote, or not. Wrongo believes that is the individualâs business. Yet, as voter participation drops, a self-selected minority determines who runs the country. They then set policy that primarily reflects their interests.
That isnât the kind of society we need. We should want our country to see all citizens as full political equals, not just in theory, but in fact. The more that barriers to voting rise in America, and the further voter participation falls, the less we resemble that ideal society.
So, issue a universal voter registration card. Move voting to the weekend, or have an entire voting week. Make it frictionless, so it’s not a big effort. Go and vote, say hi to the neighbors, and then go home to view the results.
It wouldnât be the end of the world.
