Just thought of something (or should NONVOTERS be involved in MANDATORY

[Valerie5555]

community service?), for what I am getting at in terms of "should NONVOTERS be involved in MANDATORY community service?" is that in Australia voting is mandatory and you either have a choice of VOTING or PAYING A HEAVY FINE. Maybe anyone who didn't bother to vote should have to partake of a mandated community service, in lieu of a fine or something, in the hopes it would show them the importance of voting in elections the next time and they would naturally be exempted if "voting was against their religion," or something like that.

On edit: This was inspired by talk of making high school and possibly younger kids engage in some sort of "forced volunteerism," when they probably already had enough to do with their classes at school and classwork, extracurricular activities, not to mention their paid part - time and volunteer work some already engaged in on their own, not to mention that in the odd cases, the families of some of those kids already may have gotten them involved in some sort of volunteer activity or social action.

[tsipple]

1. As Long As There's a "No Vote" Choice...

...I'm OK with that. You should be allowed to say "no thanks" to any of the candidates standing for office.

I'd also like to see Instant Runoff Voting (IRV). And good old-fashioned paper ballots.

[Valerie5555]

4. Maybe I also am in favor of "NOTA" or NONE OF THE ABOVE as well as

3 words or WRITE IN BALLOTS.

[Andy_Stephenson]

2. We have a little thing called

The Constitution.

Can't force anyone to do anything.

[Valerie5555]

3. Maybe ballots SHOULD be reworked to include "NONE OF THE ABOVE" if

someone found that the candidates were not worth voting for, even if it meant ANOTHER ELECTION if NOTA actually wins.


On edit maybe Australia should have a "good on ya" or an incentive of some sort for PEOPLE who DID BOTHER TO VOTE.

[SadEagle]

5. I am not sure that...

...encouraging people to vote who simply don't care would produce desired results. Just look at how large a role does 'personality'
and 'coolness' has in elections already. I'm just afraid that if people are forced to vote they'd be even more likely to vote for their favorite actor, or someone who they think is 'cooler', etc., then now. Of course, it could also be that I am pessimistic and cynical (and that's probably the case regardless of the correctness of the theory ;-) )

[Valerie5555]

6. Uh oh maybe

it was better they didn't vote than voted out of ignorance and being uninformed.