In the UK, should we be forced to vote?

Question

In australia, it's compulsary.

Answer 1

Yep, but there should a box to put a cross which says 'none of the above' so you could show your contempt for the pathetic candidates that we currently have!

Answer 2

It's actually compulsory in lots of countries, including most of Latin America (the ones I know of).

It's a difficult debate: is it "democratic" to be forced to participate in democracy? When so many people abstain, has the government been elected democratically? Personally, it drives me crazy when people don't vote - it seems so ungrateful when so many people in the world don't have this basic civil right. I do think by not voting you are effectively silencing yourself. I fully sympathise with people above arguing that they do not want to vote (presumably because they feel that no party represents their views, or out of a more general cynicism about whether voting produces a truly democratic system (when manifesto promises are abandoned and so the government does not carry out the programme you voted for, or most scandalously, the government can take your country to WAR without even consulting the will of the people (say, by plebiscite).

But if you don't want to vote for any existing party, you should at the very least go along and spoil your paper - if everybody who abstained did this, the government would get a clear message of broad discontent with the whole system. As it is, they're free to assume that you're just lazy or don't understand politics. And it's so little effort when polling booths are everywhere and open long hours and it takes 2 minutes to do.

I'm not wholly convinced it should be compulsory, because I think many people will tick a box randomly without understanding what they're voting for, and so the result is not necessarily more representative. If people don't want to take part, maybe we should consider it natural selection! Or perhaps there should be greater efforts to raise political awareness, although it's hard to see what more they could do.

Answer 3

No, I do not think we should be 'forced' to vote. This is a common suggestion made with the aim of making the population less apathetic towards politics. Should a population necessarily care about politics? If the population is apathetic towards politics might this not mean that they are satisfied with the status quo?

I think that if we are to make every person choose between a set of candidates then we are not allowing that person the option of preferring none of them. We don’t want a situation where voters are making choices “because they have to”, instead the vote should reflect the true opinion of the people, be that even “no preference”.

I have no problem with a system where people are forced to vote but have a “None of the above” option; this then allows people to register there lack of preference in an official manner.

Answer 4

I think everyone should be made to vote; Yes it would be undemocratic but it would still be an improvement to the current system.

Currently the Labour government gained about 35.8% of the votes, which in a FPTP system like ours isn't too bad. But if you think only 67% of the entire population voted it means the labour government was elected by about 15% of the population which is very undemocratic.

Answer 5

No because they can't get it right as it is, without having to force people, the last election I know at least 3 people who never got a voting card and other people were told they'd already voted when they hadn't, it's a shambles.

Answer 6

I think it is lunacy. Take the words freedom. and democracy from the dictionary. If someone thought for just ONE MINUTE they were going to force me to vote, I would go into the booth and tick the ruddy lot! My vote would then be invalid. That's what I would do before they got the better of me let me tell you!!!! Failing that I would vote for the raving monster loony party or whatever it is called.

Answer 7

Bit ironic dont you think? You will be made to participate in democracy? A bit like the attack on iraq. I always found it ironic that we are forcing them into a democracy!! Oh well, no we shouldnt be foreced to vote because if we are then people will just throw their votes away and skew the results somewhat.

Answer 8

I think you mean "compulsory". If everyone was forced to vote, we might have better schools, and you'd have learned how to spell!

However, I don't believe that you can have true freedom and democracy if you require participation. Abstaining from voting often is expressing an opinion in and of itself.

Answer 9

I am not in AU but you should vote, not because of being forced but because you have a choice of picking a candidate who should help your needs

if people dont vote then they get the goverment they deserve

Answer 10

It is not really voting if you are forced too vote. Voting is an act of exercising democratic power. If you are forced to vote them it is not democratic. People should be able to choice whether they should vote or not. forced voting is not going to make many happy.