What happens to Australians who do not vote?

[NW-Bound]

Vote, and vote proudly.

I wonder what happened to the 0.2%. Shipped off to the gulag before they could vote?

They did not want it to be 100% anyway. If it were, Western countries might question the validity of the poll.

 

[Texas Proud]

Under your US electoral system I can fully understand that, there is no incentive for the populace to be edumacated and therefore there is an inbuilt complacency/meh factor.

But under our upside-down system, where there is a nominal monetary penalty involved, it actually forces our voters to think about things a little more. Sure we have our rednecks [we call them bogans] but nevertheless I'd suggest our system leads to a more considered and balanced voting public.

We have our left/right, Dem/GOP divisions, with rusted-on voting lifers, but I also believe we have a much bigger 'swinging-vote' component that considers the policies in play at election time and makes a considered response. We have a lot of cross-party to-and-fro, but it generally leads to 'compromises' to a greater extent than the US cross-aisle 'negotiations', at least from my observations.

We have different electoral systems, not saying one is superior to the other

You confuse our Presidential election with all others...


Only the President has the electorial collage... all other candidates have regular voting with either highest winning or over 50% winning... IOW, popular voting...

 

[Texas Proud]

THIS is scary. Really.

[Edit] A few minutes later I realized that in this Facebook age, I suspect many folks not only tell the world that they voted, but who they voted for and how much they donated to whom and why, along with photos of them in the voting booth, what time they were there and who the met while walking to the polls.... and so on.

It is public record if you voted or not... do not have to look at facebook...

 

[38Chevy454]

I have read that in some Communist countries, they handed out food ration coupons at the poll. Is there any more powerful incentive for voting?

And it did not matter that there was only one candidate to vote for. The government wanted to be able to say with a straight face that the supreme leader was elected by 99.8% of the people.

Should've handed out vodka coupons, would have been 100%

 

[samclem]

[Edit] A few minutes later I realized that in this Facebook age, I suspect many folks not only tell the world that they voted, but who they voted for and how much they donated to whom and why, along with photos of them in the voting booth, what time they were there and who the met while walking to the polls.... and so on.

There's a good reason that voting systems do not provide the voter with a paper copy of the ballot they have cast, and that many jurisdictions specifically prohibit voters from photographing their ballot. Both steps are intended to reduce the likelihood of direct payments to voters after-the-fact for casting their ballot a particular way.

I think this prohibition on photographing ballots is a good policy.

 

[marko]

It is public record if you voted or not... do not have to look at facebook...

I know. I was reacting to getting something unsolicited in the mailbox about who among my neighbors voted and did not.

Knowing some of my neighbors I think it best for the state/country not to try to shame them into voting.

 

[MichaelB]

Back in the day in Venezuela, after voting a person’s pinky finger was dyed with dark blue ink. It didn’t wash off and lasted a few days. That led to a lot of peer pressure. They also tried a system where, instead of a fine, people who didn’t vote weren’t allowed to carry out any business that needed any kind of contract or notary for one or two years. They couldn’t get a passport or leave the country.

Punitive measures are easier to get around, peer pressure can be the harshest punishment of all.

 

[HadEnuff]

I have read that in some Communist countries, they handed out food ration coupons at the poll. Is there any more powerful incentive for voting?

And it did not matter that there was only one candidate to vote for. The government wanted to be able to say with a straight face that the supreme leader was elected by 99.8% of the people.

Yes, and no secret ballot.

After all comrade, why would you want to hide your devotion to the state?

I think it was Joseph Stalin who said something to the effect that it doesn't matter who is running, what matters is who is counting the votes. In fact, that quote is the first thing I thought of when accusations of Russian influence on the last election starting swirling about.

 

[Huston55]

I would hate to have forced voting...


I would suggest that the vast majority of people who do not vote no nothing about the candidates or whatever else is being voted...


Now, one thing that I would love to have is that no small gvmt entity can give notice and have their own election whenever they want... that happens here all the time and it creates new taxing districts with maybe 2% of the people voting...


One that got through here was an emergency district... the called for an election... someone who knew what was going on got the word out that there was a tax grab... it was voted down by a wide margin.... SOOOO, what does a good politician do Well, call another election of course... and do the absolute minimum notice required and get it passed...


BTW, we cannot undo these things... just have to live with paying more taxes to more entities...

Yes. But, the more important question is “Can they spell?”

 

[jim584672]

What happens? They make them watch 72 hours of Paul Hogan movies in a row.

 

[mbooth]

You confuse our Presidential election with all others...


Only the President has the electorial collage... all other candidates have regular voting with either highest winning or over 50% winning... IOW, popular voting...

I'm not at all confused. Although not deeply embedded in the whole US political/electoral system [our own is convoluted enough], I believe I have a reasonable understanding of the presidential/federal/state [reps and senate]/gubernatorial/local municipal voting systems and nothing in my response would suggest any confusion.

The question of compulsory vs discretionary voting was the issue under discussion If you want to complicate the matter, here [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_system_of_Australia] is an explanation of the Aussie preferential voting system

 

[mbooth]

What happens? They make them watch 72 hours of Paul Hogan movies in a row.

I'm pretty sure Paul Hogan did nowhere near 72 hours worth of movies [Thankfully ]

 

[gerntz]

Do you have to be sober? Can you be high?

 

[6miths]

It struck me the other day that in most democracies they seem to go to great lengths and spend money to get everyone to vote whereas in the US they seem to do the exact opposite. Probably a completely mistaken impression.

 

[Aus_E_Expat]

Australia has had compulsory voting for 100 years.

It is a civic obligation as a resident citizen to vote in elections, the same as it is an obligation to pay tax.

It does mean Australia has a broad range of political views reflected in the federal and state parliaments.

I think compulsory voting is an important part of democracy, rather than having a voluntary voting system where people complain about politicians and government but do nothing about changing it.

Interestingly, in 2017, Australia had a voluntary plebiscite on gay marriage and despite it being voluntary, 80% of Australians voted.

 

[DayDreaming]

Got something interesting in the mail about a week ago concerning voting. It was a list of houses on my street and it listed whether that household voted during the elections for each of the past six years. It was a somewhat threatening tone to expose you if you don't vote, they weren't pushing for any party or candidate, at least not in the mailing. The house number part of the addresses were blanked out but apparently in numerical order so since I live on a small street with only 3 houses it was easy to figure out who voted and who didn't. Don't recall the full name of the organization that sent it "Citizens for .....", it went in the trash. I always vote but this is the first time I've seen anything like this.

I got the same thing - mine was from the "Center for Voter Information", a non-profit organization. I guess their goal is to shame you into voting if you don't but your neighbors do?


Here's something about it: https://www.clickorlando.com/news/homeowners-receive-letters-mail-neighbors-voting-record

 

[Texas Proud]

I'm not at all confused. Although not deeply embedded in the whole US political/electoral system [our own is convoluted enough], I believe I have a reasonable understanding of the presidential/federal/state [reps and senate]/gubernatorial/local municipal voting systems and nothing in my response would suggest any confusion.

The question of compulsory vs discretionary voting was the issue under discussion If you want to complicate the matter, here [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_system_of_Australia] is an explanation of the Aussie preferential voting system

This is your post (below).... the sentence seems to state that because of our electoral system (I take that to mean the electorial college that elects the president) that we are complacent.... now, you might not have meant what I read... fair enough....


But, all others are elected by popular vote... but with gerrymandering and crappy people getting voted in primaries there really is not that much left to chance....



Except this election is different which is why the voting total will be high for a mid-term election....





Originally Posted by mbooth
Under your US electoral system I can fully understand that, there is no incentive for the populace to be edumacated and therefore there is an inbuilt complacency/meh factor.

 

[Chuckanut]

Only the president is chosen by the Electoral College, everybody else needs the popular vote to win. iMHO, The EC is over rated as a problem. There are other factors that are much worse in our system. I could go on but that would just invite Porky.