Compulsory Voting, Thinking Out Of The Box
Australia has a compulsory voting law. Citizens are required to show up and vote. After the election, if you don't vote, you get a letter, and must either explain your non voting or pay a fine of about $20.00.
I have some philosophical problems with this approach to require voting but the situation in this country is getting so so bad that we need to get past the games played by the parties now to something that would make the whole process more democratic.
Instead of getting more difficult to vote it should be easier to vote. Turn out which is already too low, would be higher and as a result fringe ideas which get over represented now would still exist but maybe folks in the middle who seem to have no where to go might actually get represented.
I think it would also be easier to dispose of folks that misuse their office.
I realize this would probably cause the local election departments to grow and might add to the bureaucracy but it may also change the voting system and the democratic process in ways I can't imagine. The current system leaves congress in such ill repute I think they might consider reform as preferable to the damage they are doing the system. They say they want informed voters, the way it works now its hard to believe other than that they just want to stay in power and further job the system.
This post is based on a discussion on the Diane Rehm Show on NPR.
I have some philosophical problems with this approach to require voting but the situation in this country is getting so so bad that we need to get past the games played by the parties now to something that would make the whole process more democratic.
Instead of getting more difficult to vote it should be easier to vote. Turn out which is already too low, would be higher and as a result fringe ideas which get over represented now would still exist but maybe folks in the middle who seem to have no where to go might actually get represented.
I think it would also be easier to dispose of folks that misuse their office.
I realize this would probably cause the local election departments to grow and might add to the bureaucracy but it may also change the voting system and the democratic process in ways I can't imagine. The current system leaves congress in such ill repute I think they might consider reform as preferable to the damage they are doing the system. They say they want informed voters, the way it works now its hard to believe other than that they just want to stay in power and further job the system.
This post is based on a discussion on the Diane Rehm Show on NPR.
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