this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2024
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I believe Australia has mandatory voting and achieves a ~95% participation of registered voters basically every election, though they do enforce it with either a day in court or a fine.
I do wonder if you fined people, or wasted a day of theirs with court, whether it would have an impact in Greece after a couple of elections?
We swing between 93-95% participation
We alao make voting as easy as possible with voting opening 2-4 weeks in advance of election day, election day is always a weekend and as long as you vote before or on election day it's counted.
Also democracy sausages
I think such a high turn out makes our politicians a bit more honest with less empty promises since they can't dissuade anyone from voting.
Right. And for people who try to argue that they shouldn't be forced to choose between people they like like, or whatever, it's important to understand that it is only mandatory to get your name ticked off the list. You don't actually have to submit a valid vote. You can choose to just turn in a blank ballot paper, or write "fuck you" or whatever you like. There are no laws against that.
So the 'mandatory voting' just makes it mandatory to put in the small amount of effort required to show up; but doesn't force you to express an opinion. (Of course, I'd say that you should submit a valid vote. But you don't have to.)
You can not enforce new social norms like that. People, including voting ones, will revolt. They will call it undemocratic and a cash grab. You are just asking for trouble.