should voting in every country are compulsory?
By jHoEn16
@jHoEn16 (2043)
Australia
August 16, 2007 3:44am CST
here in australia its compulsory to vote if you're over 18. how about in your country? what can you say about our rules here in australia for voting?
4 responses
@raychill (6525)
• United States
16 Aug 07
No. I don't think anyone should ever be made to do anything. Like, we have Jury duty that you MUST serve on if you get called in for it. That's not fair. I just don't think you should be forced into doing something. I think people should do things because they want to, because they believe in it, because they want to fight for it... not because they HAVE to do it because then it's a must-do and not a want-to and less feeling go into must-do's.
@Malyck (3425)
• Australia
16 Aug 07
That's exactly right, Raychill, anything that someone feels they are obligated to do, they will generally be less enthusiastic to participate in, thus they will put in minimal effort.
I can't believe that serving Jury duty is compulsory! I never knew that, and now that I do, I think it's just outrageous!
Putting legal cases in the hands of people who don't even want to be there.
No wonder there is so much injustice!
@raychill (6525)
• United States
16 Aug 07
I remember when I visited Australia my friend Peta said voting was mandatory. I was like WHAT? But yes, our Jury duty is in the states. Basically what happens is if you get called in for it (and this varies for everyone) you HAVE to do it. There are very few ways to get out of it, because even if you're going to be out of town, they just reschedule you. Your job doesn't matter, nothing matters. You will be fined and all sorts of things.
Where I live you get $15 dollars and free parking for doing Jury Duty. That, to me, isn't worth missing an entire day of work for some mandatory civil service.
@Malyck (3425)
• Australia
16 Aug 07
I am also Australian, and I think that even the notion of 'compulsory voting' is ridiculous.
Personally, I believe that it has led to a lot of bad electoral decisions in recent years for people who have no political interest or conscious.
I think that we should have the choice to vote in the supposed Democracy that we live in...
Malyck.
@jHoEn16 (2043)
• Australia
17 Aug 07
hello there malyck, i am a filipina but my husband is an australian... i just arrive here in qld one month ago... it happened that i saw a letter from our mailbox for my husband and it came from the senators... so i asked him about it and he told me about the coming election plus i always saw the candidates on tv...
he told me that it is compulsory to vote here in au if you're over 18, i said WHAT? first time i heared that? what about those people who doesnt have an interest about politics?
i agree with you.. it's ridiculous!
in the philippines we have all the freedom to vote whoever we want and dont vote if we dont want... the government should respect that..
thanks for the responce
@sudiptacallingu (10879)
• India
17 Aug 07
Every democratic country grants some rights to its citizens and expects certain responsibilities in return. If voting is considered an infringable right then it should also be the responsibility of citizens to exercise their rights in the proper way. In India, nothing is compulsory per se. As it is, people are not very aware of their responsibilities
and even if they are, they are hardly bothered because the lackadaisical attitude of the authorities makes it very easy to escape conviction in many matter, however serious. Another thing is that many people are quite disillusioned with the quality of leaders that they have and since you can just get away without voting (there is no penalty as such), people just sit at home and enjoy a holiday.
Also I feel that with the previous system of manual stamping on papers, one had the option of canceling one’s own vote if you did not find anyone worth voting for, but in the new EVMs, you have to press
the button against some name even if you don’t like to. So I think that’s another reason why many people abstain from voting.
@Sutocu (65)
•
17 Aug 07
Though I can see the benefits, I'm against anything compulsory. It's a problem with freedom of speech, in my opinion, because the freedom of speech should also include the freedom not to speak.
So, yeah, I'm against it, even though I plan to vote in every election myself.
