Hi Larry, actually no. Its one thing not to prosecute people for  
failure to vote. Its another to admit that there is a legal right  
not to vote. There have been a few cases about this: the US ones  
were covered by Rick Hasen in a 1996 article he wrote about  
compulsory voting (and which I've always found extremely useful).  
But I'm wondering if there have been any cases since then,  
especially in the US.

Here's what I've written in  relation to the U.S. so far: "In the  
United States the right not to vote has been indirectly challenged a  
number of times via constitutional challenges to voter purge  
statutes. Almost all have been unsuccessful (Blomberg, 1995: 1017,  
n. 18) including one that explicitly argued that voter purge  
statutes violate the right not to vote and thereby express political  
dissatisfaction (Hoffman v Maryland, 928 F.2d 646, 648-49 (4th Cir.  
1991)) (Hasen, 1996: 2135).[1]

[1] According to Jeffrey Blomberg ‘many states attempt to maintain  
accurate voter registration rolls and prevent election fraud by  
using voter purge statutes that remove voters from the registry who  
fail to vote in a certain number of elections. This practice  
infringes upon a voter’s right not to vote and further discourages  
those already disenchanted with the political process. Citizens  
should not be forced to re-register to vote unless they move out of  
the voting jurisdiction. Voting is a fundamental right that an  
individual should enjoy free from unnecessary governmental  
intervention. The threat of being purged for failure to vote forces  
an individual either to go to the polls and vote for a candidate not  
of his or her choice or to reregister. Moreover, exercising the  
right not to vote may also deserve high tier constitutional  
protection because abstention involves a form of political  
expression protected under the First Amendment…While voter purge  
statutes do not undermine a voter’s right to actually go and pull  
the lever, voter purge statutes still violate the the inherent right  
not to vote’ (Blomberg, 1995, 1016-7; 1036)"

I found your question curious until I saw your location. I am not  
aware of any cases on this issue. But I wonder, doesn't the right to  
not vote exist in the absense of a requirement to vote?
Good Luck,
Larry

----- Original Message ----- From: "Lisa Hill" <lisa.hill@adelaide.edu.au 

To: <election-law@mailman.lls.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, December 28, 2010 8:28 PM
Subject: [EL] 'right not to vote'

Dear EL listers,
I'm currently working on a political theory paper about whetheror
not  the so-called 'right not to vote' should  be legally
recognised. Does anyone know of any recent cases where this issue
was raised?

Yours hopefully

Lisa

Professor Lisa Hill
Politics Discipline
School of History and Politics
University of Adelaide
Adelaide   S.A.   5005
Australia

Tel: 61 8 83034608
Fax: 61 8 83033443

_______________________________________________
election-law mailing list
election-law@mailman.lls.edu
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-----
Professor Lisa Hill
Post-graduate Co-ordinator
Politics Discipline
School of History and Politics
University of Adelaide
Adelaide   S.A.   5005
Australia

Tel: 61 8 83034608
Fax: 61 8 83033443


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