In most democratic countries, the number one issue with elections and electing leaders or legislators is the people not going to the polls and voting. Compulsory voting or mandatory voting are laws that several democratic nations have passed making citizens go to vote on election day. The number one opposing statement to mandatory voting is that it impedes on the Right to Vote.
Mandatory voting is effective at raising turnout and reducing turnout inequality. In Australia, the introduction of compulsory voting for Commonwealth elections in 1924 resulted in an increase in the voting levels from 57.9% at the 1922 election to 91.3% at the 1925 election. compulsory turnout had the largest impact on turnout out of a number of factors including the competitiveness of elections, electoral disproportionality, the number of political parties and having one major …show more content…
As renowned political scientist Arend Lijphart once said “"A political system with the universal right to vote but with only a tiny fraction of citizens exercising this right should be regarded as a democracy in merely a ... hollow sense of the term." which means that a country where citizens hardly ever exercise their right to vote but have it is still a democracy, but it is not a good, strong or healthy democracy. Canada's Chief Electoral Officer, Jean-Pierre Kingsley, said once when mandatory voting was a controversy in Canada "The right to vote is only meaningful when you use it." Despite the claims that mandatory voting takes voting rights from citizens, mandatory voting actually doesn’t force a citizen to vote, compulsory voting cannot, because of the secrecy of the ballot, require people to vote but only to attend the polling booth. The citizen is not required to cast an actual valid ballot and, consequently, the right not to vote remains
Mandatory voting is effective at raising turnout and reducing turnout inequality. In Australia, the introduction of compulsory voting for Commonwealth elections in 1924 resulted in an increase in the voting levels from 57.9% at the 1922 election to 91.3% at the 1925 election. compulsory turnout had the largest impact on turnout out of a number of factors including the competitiveness of elections, electoral disproportionality, the number of political parties and having one major …show more content…
As renowned political scientist Arend Lijphart once said “"A political system with the universal right to vote but with only a tiny fraction of citizens exercising this right should be regarded as a democracy in merely a ... hollow sense of the term." which means that a country where citizens hardly ever exercise their right to vote but have it is still a democracy, but it is not a good, strong or healthy democracy. Canada's Chief Electoral Officer, Jean-Pierre Kingsley, said once when mandatory voting was a controversy in Canada "The right to vote is only meaningful when you use it." Despite the claims that mandatory voting takes voting rights from citizens, mandatory voting actually doesn’t force a citizen to vote, compulsory voting cannot, because of the secrecy of the ballot, require people to vote but only to attend the polling booth. The citizen is not required to cast an actual valid ballot and, consequently, the right not to vote remains