Mandatory voting?

[ijack]

I'm having a hard time believing that this hasn't been posted already, maybe I missed it?
www.cnn.com/2015/03/19/politics/obama-mandatory-voting/index.html

The president whose major policy achievement is mandatory health insurance thinks maybe voting should be mandatory, too.

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," Obama said Wednesday in Cleveland, where he spoke about the importance of middle class economics, and was asked about the issue during a town hall.

"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 clout of millionaires and billionaires in campaign funding has been enormous, and many claim the uber wealthy have undue leverage in politics.

"The people who tend not to vote are young, they're lower income, they're skewed more heavily towards immigrant groups and minority groups," Obama said. "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.

Aside from campaign finance issues, the United States also grapples with one of the lowest voter turnout rates among developed countries.

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.

But mandatory voting could bring its own set of problems. Haydon Manning, associate professor at Flinders University in Australia, said that country's rules can backfire.

"Turning the vote out might not be a problem, but wooing disengaged citizens now requires banal sloganeering and crass misleading negative advertising," Manning wrote. "To me, this can diminish the democratic experience for those who take the time to think through the issues."

[eliseb0323]

Obama is just trying to mess with the people advocating for more voting restrictions. He didn't say we should have mandatory voting, just that the country would be transformed IF everyone voted. Mandatory voting will never be a thing in the U.S. Now watch the right wing hysterically spin this into "Obama will put you in jail if you don't vote."

[iammalcolmx]

It can't work logistically. I ain't even giving it a second thought.

[pixy0stix]

Mar 19, 2015 10:37:28 GMT -5 eliseb0323 said:

Obama is just trying to mess with the people advocating for more voting restrictions. He didn't say we should have mandatory voting, just that the country would be transformed IF everyone voted. Mandatory voting will never be a thing in the U.S. Now watch the right wing hysterically spin this into "Obama will put you in jail if you don't vote."

I'm hoping this means they don't vote because they're protesting against Obama.

[ECB]

Mar 19, 2015 10:37:28 GMT -5 eliseb0323 said:

 Now watch the right wing hysterically spin this into "Obama will put you in jail if you don't vote."

Of course they will.  he could say the sky is blue and the earth is round and they'd try to debunk both of these.  JUST because Obama said it.

[jeaniebueller]

This story was posted on our local news FB page and the reader comments are truly straight out of Idiocracy.

[downtoearth]

The "fine" for not having health insurance was hard enough for Dems to swallow and fought by Republicans, so I doubt this would really ever get traction, but it is something to keep in mind about our turnout.

You know what would make campaigns more "fair and equitable?" Fix the Citizen's United response that big companies bought from SCOTUS!

[cookiemdough]

This was on the news this morning. They interviewed some random off the street people to get their thoughts. One woman said, "yes, everyone should be required to vote and speak English."

Um what now?

[lahoagie]

I would love to see a voting system where you would rank the candidates. So if there are 5 candidates you would rank them 1-5. Then you would calculate who has the lowest number 1 ranking and remove that candidate from everyone's ballet and re-rank. Repeat until you have your winner. It would allow people to vote for third party candidates and not feel like they are throwing away their vote.