Another ill-advised dip into politics!

[muckefuck]

When I first heard of "mandatory voting", I thought it was a bad idea. Liberal Australians informing me how popular such measures were couldn't convince me otherwise. Being a snotty elitist, I think we already have too many numbskulls voting. If you can't be arsed to even make it to the polls, it's a fair bet we're all better off without you skewing the results by voting a straight-party ticket or picking the candidate with the most Irish-sounding name or whatever. However, all the recent shenanigans aimed at disinfranchising voters (primarily schemes requiring photo IDs in order to establish eligibility) have forced me to ponder whether mandatory voting may actually be the best way to do an end run around them. Or course, we could simply end up with the worst of both worlds: Citizens not just prevented from voting but forced to pay a fine to boot.

Comments

[richardthinks.livejournal.com]

Voting is mandatory in Brazil, too, even for the millions of people who live many miles from a polling station and have no transport to get allow them to comply with the law. Candidates' supporting parties understand the problem, and therefore organise convoys of trucks out to remote areas, to round up stranded voters, supply them with a beer and a biro, and help them vote the right way.

My wife (who is Brazilian) thinks this is a better system than allowing them not to vote at all, although as an expat she gets a dispensation not to vote, as long as she maintains a registered expat status.