Should one be fined for not voting?

[Ken Gargett]

Its a civic duty, I'm all in favour of it. Its not a massive burden to turn out to vote every so often.

Good article on point (and a good website generally):

http://theconversation.com/compulsory-voting-much-like-democracy-beats-the-alternatives-34765

dimmers, good post. i get the daily conversation email and they often have interesting stuff, not that i agree with a lot of it. i do not believe 70% support compulsory voting but i have been wrong plenty of times before.

i did like the bloke who said, 'if voting ever made a difference, they'd make it illegal'.

and rob, if you were really so anti this, surely you would refuse to pay the fine and fight it?

that said, i still think voting should not be compulsory.

[Dara]

If I was Australian and didn't find anyone who deserves my vote, Could I not just turn up and spoil my ballot, therefore removing chance of a fine and not being responsible for either idiot getting elected ?

[Ken Gargett]

If I was Australian and didn't find anyone who deserves my vote, Could I not just turn up and spoil my ballot, therefore removing chance of a fine and not being responsible for either idiot getting elected ?

yes and that certainly happens.

that said, it is an offence to spoil your ballot paper but in practice, never heard of anyone being pinged for it. and you'd really have to dob on yourself.

[Lasabar]

What happens if I don't vote on this poll posted by Rob?

[El Presidente]

and rob, if you were really so anti this, surely you would refuse to pay the fine and fight it?

that said, i still think voting should not be compulsory.

Fantastic. At the conclusion of it all I would have dealt with Satan's Trinity ......Politicians, Bureaucracy and Solicitors.

[Ken Gargett]

Fantastic. At the conclusion of it all I would have dealt with Satan's Trinity ......Politicians, Bureaucracy and Solicitors.

oh, how badly misunderstood lawyers are.

[Smokin_Safari]

It's all part of the scam - they make us hate them so we don't vote, then raise money through fines to go on more free chopper flights to friend's weddings or limos to football games....

[anacostiakat]

Here in the states many times (too many!) it is a matter of either not voting or choosing the best (for you) of two evils. Sigh....

[Magpie]

Voting is a democratic right and should never be compulsory. I missed the last Victoria election as I was away for six weeks and had to justify my absence, red tape gone bonkers. The essence of the problem is that in countries where voting is not compulsory the conservative voters always have a bigger turn out, that does t mean they always win, just that they are more likely to get out and vote. It's suits socialists to have compulsory voting, as you may have guessed I'm not one of them?

[Dara]

yes and that certainly happens.

that said, it is an offence to spoil your ballot paper but in practice, never heard of anyone being pinged for it. and you'd really have to dob on yourself.

That's the key thing Ken, in a secret ballot as all elections should be, the guys sitting at the desk handing out the ballot sheets have no way of knowing what anyone puts on their sheet.

So basically you get fined for not turning up and having your name ticked off a list and getting a piece of paper, after that they've no way of proving anything (you could slip your ballot paper into your pocket and they've no way of proving if or what you put in a box).

Far more sensible law I think would be that if you don't vote without a good reason then you're excluded from the next vote.....fining people for not voting doesn't help democracy or make people value their say in elections, it merely raises money!

[ogus]

If you look at the current state of the US the answer is obvious.

[Scroats]

Voting is for suckers. If you want to have a say in politics, buy politicians!