Discussions of compulsory voting often omit the several millions of
(former) voters who choose not to vote as a protest or to withhold the
consent of the governed in the only way they apparently can. (Voters
for winners surely consent, as do voters for losers under majority
rule consent as well).
The reasons non-registered non-voters have for doing so vary, (and
some are based on misinformation about whether they can indeed vote)
but commonly people say that they do not trust that their vote will be
fairly counted due to non-transparent vote counts and the like. A
couple years ago I had Zogby ask non-registered people why they
weren't registered instead of hanging up on these people, and I got a
little data on that which opened my eyes to the fact that non-voters
are by no means monolithically apathetic.
Paul Lehto, J.D.
On 10/20/10, Jack Santucci <jms346@georgetown.edu> wrote:
This encyclopedia entry/lit review by Simon Jackman is the most useful piece
I've seen on compulsory voting:
http://jackman.stanford.edu/papers/cv.pdf
Jack Santucci
On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 9:15 AM, Craig Holman <holman@aol.com> wrote:
In the discussion thread of Latino voter suppression, the idea of
compulsory voting was raised.
Though compulsory voting tends to run contrary to American political
tradition, there is considerable political science research that supports
its value. Perhaps the most common argument against compulsory voting is
that it does little good for the polity to force people to vote on
candidates who know nothing about the candidates or care very little about
politics.
I once heard a presentation by Arend Lijphart at a political science
conference on the issue. He compiled an extensive cross-national database
among nations that compel the vote (today, there are 32 nations that do
so)
and found, in part, that when voters are required to cast ballots, even
the
disinterested often make the effort to be better informed. Apparently, if
one has to do it, it is better to do it well than to waste one's time.
Furthermore, candidates and parties work herder at getting information to
the entire electorate rather than targeted voters.
Other notable conclusions he found:
1. Most compulsory systems levy a small fine, like a parking ticket, for
not voting. But even in the face of such a minimal penalty, voting
increases
by about 7% to 16% over a non-compulsory system.
2. Compulsory voting solves the problem of institutional or ideological
factors, such as the Latino vote suppression discussed in this thread,
designed to suppress the vote.
3. Non-compulsory voting systems show a large socio-economic bias in
turnout.
Craig Holman, Ph.D.
Government Affairs Lobbyist
Public Citizen
215 Pennsylvania Avenue NE
Washington, D.C. 20003
TEL: (202) 454-5182
CEL: (202) 905-7413
FAX: (202) 547-7392
Holman@aol.com
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