The United States of America is supposed to be a land of freedom where one can exercise the right to have various liberties that are not found in many other countries around the world. Among these liberties is the right to vote in a democratic government. Voting is a privilege in the United States that should not be taken for granted; many countries do not have the luxury of choosing who they want to represent them in government. Or if they do, they have in place a system that is called compulsory voting.
Compulsory voting is a system in which voters are obligated to come to their designated polling place on Election Day to place a vote. If voters do not come to vote, they “may be subject to punitive measures such as fines, community service, or perhaps imprisonment if fines are unpaid or community service is not performed” (Wikipedia 1). If the United States government is considered a democracy, and if citizens are allowed liberties such as freedom of speech among many others, then why establish a system of compulsory voting?
It goes against what America has stood for all along and therefore should not be enforced. Compulsory voting is an undemocratic tool used to force people to do something they should not be forced to do against their will-vote. It is an infringement of liberty to enforce compulsory voting in the United States. There are many reasons why compulsory voting in the United States would not work. First, it would increase the amount of donkey votes in the election. A donkey vote is “a vote on a preferential ballot on which the voter’s order of preference follows the order in which the candidates are listed” (Wikipedia 1).
In other words, it is considered a “bad” vote and is not counted towards determining the winner of the election. It also has the potential to bias the vote by making the first person listed on the ballot more inclined to win. One reason why voters choose to cast donkey votes when forced to vote is because they are simply apathetic towards the election, and if they had the choice, they would not be voting in the first place. Therefore, they choose to express themselves by casting a neutral vote that cannot even be counted. This is both a waste of time for the voter as well as for the people counting the votes.
Besides donkey votes, the number of informal votes would increase as well. According to Encarta, an informal vote is a ballot paper which is not filled in or incorrectly filled in and is declared invalid. Sometimes an informal vote occurs by accident; other times, voters who are angry about a certain issue, such as being forced to vote, may purposely fill out a ballot incorrectly in order to demonstrate their opinion. An alternate reason why compulsory voting is not a good idea, especially in the United States, is that it would simply take away one of the basic civil rights Americans currently have.
We have the option to vote; taking that away would severely limit our constitutional freedom. Voting is a right; if we have the right to vote, then we also have the right not to vote. If everyone would be forced to vote, the election would have a skewed outcome because those voting against their will would not vote for whom they truly wanted; instead, they would vote for anyone just to get the process out of the way. This would result in a high number of votes, but not necessarily an honest one.
Another reason why compulsory voting should not be practiced in the United States is that it would be extremely difficult to enforce. Among the many difficulties that would arise should this system be used would be the problem of tracking down the people who decided not to vote and finding out their reason for absence. Compulsory voting comes with monetary fines or other methods used to “punish” those who do not vote on election day. For example, in Bolivia, a person who does not vote is unable to withdraw his or her salary from the bank for three months after the election is over.
In Peru, if one does not have a stamped voting card to prove he or she has voted, that person is not able to receive specific services or products from many public offices. In Belgium, if one does not vote, the chances of getting hired at a job are slim to none. In Greece, prison is an option, as well as trouble obtaining a new driver’s license or passport. In other words, if a person does not have a legitimate reason why he or she did not vote, such as extreme illness or absence from the country, along with concrete evidence to prove the reason, he or she will somehow be “punished. ” Voting is a right and a privilege, not an obligation.
There are better ways to encourage higher voter turnout without making voting mandatory. Compulsory voting is not an efficient way to respond to the problem of voter disengagement. The government should look at the reason behind the lack of voting enthusiasm rather than try to mask the problem by making voting mandatory. There are many reasons why people choose not to vote; for example, they could be unsupportive of all of the electoral candidates, they could have no interest whatsoever in politics, or even simply be unable to get to their polling place because of other obligations.
In the religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses, people of this faith choose not to vote because of their faith. By making voting mandatory, this would take away not only our freedom of choosing to vote, but in a sense our freedom to practice religion any way we choose. Compulsory voting would never work well in the United States because American citizens are already extremely adapted to their liberties; we would believe that one of our most important basic rights, the right to vote, would be taken away from us.
Perhaps one way to encourage more people to vote is to turn voting into something more positive. When one turns on the television around election time, one is bombarded with ad after negative ad featuring the opponents running for office trying to shed one another in an extremely pessimistic and distrustful light. While this kind of advertising may work to some advantage to help people decide about whom they want to vote for, it usually just puts people into a bad mood and makes them develop the mentality of “who do we really trust?
Is it really worth voting for anyone anymore? ” Instead of putting their money into negative advertising, the government or the candidates should focus more on encouraging people to come out and vote by making voting seem like a fun, positive activity. Humans would respond more efficiently and willingly to the idea of voting being something fun, exciting, and beneficial, rather than it being a forced, mandatory hassle, almost like another chore to get out of the way. If compulsory voting were to be enforced, it would basically make voting seem like an annoying chore.
In conclusion, compulsory voting is an infringement of freedom. It goes against the principles America was founded on; that is to say, all of the basic civil liberties we enjoy. By making voting mandatory, America would go against everything she has stood for all this time. Compulsory voting should not be enforced in a democratic government; the whole point of democracy is the right to choose. By forcing people to vote, this choice would be taken away because abstaining from voting is in a way voting in itself.
If someone does not like any of the candidates running for office during an election, why should they be forced to vote for someone they do not approve of? Even if the ballot contained a “none of the above” option, selecting that choice would be the same as not voting at all. If the government wants to force us to vote, they might as well tell us who to vote for at the same time. Overall, let us hope that compulsory voting never occurs in the United States.
