Should Everyone Vote?

Democracy and freedom don't always go together well. Many believe that a government of the people, by the people, and for the people must make demands of its citizenry if it is to be truly fair and representative. Thus, there are those who support mandatory conscription so that the burden of defending the country falls on everyone, there are those who advocate forced community service so that everyone shares the work of improving their local communities, and there are those who believe voting should be compulsory so that every citizen plays an active role in selecting the government. On the other side of the aisle, there's the "fun and games" crowd who don't see democracy as a bringer of burdens but instead as a bringer of opportunities. I'm an irresponsible member of this latter group, I must confess. I'm not so extreme that I would call for the end of all taxation, but in general I prefer the government to refrain from ordering its citizens around if it is at all possible. The cost of freedom is that there will be both "good" citizens who take their privileged position in a free society very seriously and "bad" citizens who do not spin, weave, fight, volunteer, or vote. Could this freedom that allows some to opt out of some of the "duties" of citizenship be harmful for democratic countries?

Of the three possible duties of citizenship that I mentioned earlier, compulsory voting is the least demanding. While forced service typically requires a serious time commitment that will necessarily disrupt lives, forced voting merely requires the citizen to take some time on the day of an election to cast a vote. At most, this action will disrupt the citizen's day, not his or her entire life. Although a burden, it is not a particularly noxious one and I do not consider it as morally questionable as many other intrusive government mandates. Still, that doesn't mean it is the right thing to do -- there should be a very good reason for forcing people to do anything.

The obvious benefit of compulsory voting is that it strongly encourages people to participate in politics. Democracy can give people a voice in determining how their country's affairs are run, but if they never use that voice to express their opinions they can't help shape their nation. Indeed, these silent citizens may ultimately find themselves entirely at the mercy of an unfriendly yet duly elected government -- that's not necessarily a better thing than living under a tyrant! In countries where voting is not compulsory, like the United States, people may opt out of voting for reasons some would deem frivolous: "I don't want to face the crowd at the voting booth." "I'm tired and just don't feel like it." "My DVR is broken and I'll miss my favorite TV show if I go vote." Still others may not vote because they are unsure of how the system works or feel too intimidated to vote due to racism or other discrimination. In compulsory voting countries, not going to the polls likely means paying a fine at a future date or facing some stiffer penalty -- perhaps even imprisonment -- so it is not a decision to be taken lightly. In Australia, well over 90% of the electorate votes. In the United States, the percentage is more like 60%...still a majority, though!

Even if we do grant that the reasons why some people do not vote might indeed be frivolous, we should consider the possibility that there are some perfectly valid reasons not to vote. For instance, what if you simply don't have a preference for a particular candidate? In Australia, voters without a candidate they can in good conscience support must make mandatory appearances at the polls but may submit blank ballots. That's a waste of both time and paper, but it is certainly preferable to being forced to actually cast a binding vote. Mandatory voting may also lead to people completely uninterested and uninformed about politics to cast blind votes for candidates they know little about. When it comes to voting, I think ignorance definitely is an excuse not to vote -- I know when I wasn't really following politics I didn't have a clue as to the policies of various politicians. I couldn't have made an informed decision in the booth, and at the time I wasn't really interested in devoting the time necessary to get informed. Once again, the proper action of the uninformed and uninterested would be to simply submit a blank ballot in a compulsory voting nation, but it seems like that doesn't always occur -- "donkey votes" in Australia seem to be an example of what can happen when disgruntled and uninterested voters participate in elections. (Of course, disgruntled voters are allowed to participate in noncompulsory voting countries as well, and often do!) There's another group of people who I also personally think should consider not voting even though they are some of the most informed people around: journalists who try to report the news in an unbiased fashion. Of course, journalists are first and foremost citizens who have just as much right to vote as anyone else, but I would definitely respect the journalist who chooses freely to refrain from directly participating in politics so as to better report the news "purely." I've noticed with alarm that increasingly even reporters show political bias and seem to be willing to try to twist the news in order to support a certain political outlook -- journalism is a profession that needs to stive for purity on the reporting side of things if it is to keep the nation informed. Ideally, one should be able to balance one's journalistic ethics and one's personal political beliefs, but if someone senses a conflict between the two and decides to opt out of voting in order to be a better journalist, I think that person has made a noble decision.

I've basically used Australia as my example of a compulsory voting nation throughout this post. It is a country where compulsory voting has been in place for a long time and the practice seems to have both governmental and widespread popular support there. Many in the United States, the UK, and other countries look at the Aussies' voter participation rates with envy, but it isn't necessarily easy to pinpoint how this increased participation has actually changed Australian politics relative to other democracies. For instance, I long thought that one bonus of forcing everyone to vote would be the rising of many smaller parties to cater to the desires of the enlarged electorate. Australia, however, pretty much has a two-party system though the Greens are more successful there than any third party in the United States and they also have some regional parties who are active in local politics. Compulsory voting also doesn't seem to have led to political disaster -- while I'm no admirer of Prime Minister Rudd's Internet filtering scheme, Australia remains a relatively free and first world country. Even if compulsory voting does happen to encourage more uninformed people to vote blindly, it is quite possible for the uninformed to vote for different candidates...they won't necessarily all veer towards the demagogue, for instance. So, when it comes to Australia, I'd like to see voting made noncompulsory there more for the sake of individual freedom -- the state shouldn't be ordering people to exercise their rights as citizens and inconveniencing the lives of those who don't want to vote -- than because it has been politically harmful.

It's worthwhile to note that compulsory voting doesn't necessarily always take the form it does in Australia. In 2002, for instance, Saddam Hussein claimed to get 100% of the Iraqi vote with 100% voter participation. If you can neither choose whether or not to vote nor choose a candidate to vote for, then that is the result -- a meaningless election that people participate in essentially for ceremonial purposes. Granted, voting in Saddam Hussein's Iraq was more of a sham than a compulsory affair, but compulsory voting means absolutely nothing if there isn't also free choice. Up to this point, Australia has done a good job of protecting the freedom of the vote even as it has denied the freedom of the voter; its elections are still free. In other countries, however, compulsory voting is used to disguise the fact that elections are anything but free and fair. The Iraqi experience is not reason enough to absolutely condemn the Australian system, but one of the reasons I feel the way I do about the government making actions compulsory is because I know that the most brutal governments routinely treat their citizens like pawns.