Another Mandate: Compulsory Voting
Adam Freedman ·
June 25, 2012 at 5:28am
In a recent Bloomberg OpEd, former Obama OMB director Peter Orszag argues that the US should have compulsory voting. Great idea! Just like Australia! Oh -- and Argentina, Lebanon, Egypt, and Congo, as Ilya Somin points out at the Volokh Conspiracy. Somin more or less destroys the notion that compulsory voting somehow produces better governance, or a more virtuous citizenry. But even if compulsory voting led to good outcomes, why on earth should anyone be compelled to vote? Why should the apathetic and ignorant (ie, the people who currently don't vote) be dragged to the polls?
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Feb '12
Re: Another Mandate: Compulsory Voting
So, Orszag says that US should have compulsory voting. And Holder says that "of all the freedoms we enjoy today none is more important, or more sacred, than the right to vote". But why? Ilya Somin, Eugene Volokh, and yours truly come from the land where 99% of people voted, and 99 of those voted for the candidate of "united bloc of communists and non-party members". From Karl Lueger to National Socialists in Germany to Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt - worshiping the sacred right to vote more often than not leads to disastrous results.
And it's not just in Barbaric places like Gaza and Austria (sarcasm intended). In post-WW2 Europe people voted themselves higher and higher benefits, with fewer and fewer votes cast by those who paid for this seemingly never-ending party.
Jun '10
Re: Another Mandate: Compulsory Voting
1. So that they can be indoctrinated on how to vote.
2. So that they can be lined up against a wall and shot if they fail the indoctrination.
Pretty simple, really. Yeah, I'm feeling punchy tonight. Must be the Margaritas.
Jun '10
Re: Another Mandate: Compulsory Voting
Is historical and political ignorance more the exception, or more the norm? I think too much the norm. Compulsory voting--not a good idea.
Jaywalk All-Stars (11/9/11)
http://www.nbc.com/the-tonight-show/video/jaywalk-all-stars-11911/1367563
Jul '10
Re: Another Mandate: Compulsory Voting
Funny you should mention the name Bloomberg in this context. Overreaching bozos who elevate there narrow views of civic virtue to a moral imperative require a good solid application of derision and mockery. If I had directed Obama's OMB, I would leave it off my resumé and try to convince potential employers I had spent the time in federal prison for embezzlement to improve my employment chances.
Mar '11
Re: Another Mandate: Compulsory Voting
Hey, how about Greece? Compulsory voting has produced excellent results there.
And to be fair Lebanon isn't entirely compulsory, only for men.
Mar '11
Re: Another Mandate: Compulsory Voting
Mel, are Alisha, Zach and Paige 'celebrities'?
Jun '10
Re: Another Mandate: Compulsory Voting
They're "Jaywalking" celebrities. Jay Leno goes out on the streets of LA to ask passersby hard questions, like "what continent is Alaska on?" And they might say, "Russia..." That's how they get to be "all-stars."
Mar '11
Re: Another Mandate: Compulsory Voting
They are gonna have another election in Egypt?
Well, anyway, if the Government can force you to buy health insurance they can surely force you to vote (and eat Broccoli and not drink giant sodas).
Why this week is kinda important for the US.
Jun '10
Re: Another Mandate: Compulsory Voting
I'm all for the apathetic or lazy or uninformed staying away from the polls. They're doing us all a favor by not injecting their cluelessness into the electoral process.
Sep '10
Re: Another Mandate: Compulsory Voting
So i guess pretty much all you have to say to someone on this is "oh, you mean like they do in the Congo."
Jan '11
Re: Another Mandate: Compulsory Voting
No.
Both assumptions depend on a lack of communication, which takes an artificial suspension of disbelief to make the point of the example. So when Orszag follows that graph with:
... he's imposing an onerous, real-world solution for a problem that doesn't exist in the real world.
May '10
Re: Another Mandate: Compulsory Voting
I'd suggest a counter-intuitive interpretation of poor voter turnout. A low voter turnout may be an indication that the voters are generally satisfied with how things are going, so they have no pressing issues about which to register their vote.
Evidence supporting the thesis includes both phenomena such as the Tea Party; people who vote because they are concerned about certain issues such as political policies. Also, the high turnout among Blacks to vote; people seizing on an opportunity to elect someone with whom they particularly identify. Contrasting evidence includes libertarians who are rather unhappy with both political parties and, at least threaten, that they will withhold their vote entirely; people who are insufficiently concerned about any issue to motivate them to vote for "the lesser of two evils."
Mar '11
Re: Another Mandate: Compulsory Voting
I suspect a change to compulsory voting would not make much difference to the outcomes of elections. Pundits would have a few different things to talk about, such as the informal vote and the donkey vote, but the parties would quickly learn how to manipulate the system thus preventing any net change in results.
Over the years Australian and state governments have tinkered with the system to make it "easier" to vote. Not surprisingly changes always have the effect of deterring anything but a straight party ticket vote.
May '10
Re: Another Mandate: Compulsory Voting
Maybe the Democrats will agree to a compromise? How about: All votes are considered Demomocrat votes and you only have to vote if you want to change your vote.
Voila, less people inconvenienced, guaranteed power for D and a handy list of the "people's enemies".
Apr '11
Re: Another Mandate: Compulsory Voting
And will there be an exemption for those who can't participate in the political process for religious reasons like the Jehovah's Witnesses? Or will they be compelled to show up at the polls to turn in a blank ballot?
Dec '10
Re: Another Mandate: Compulsory Voting
Lew Rockwell (amongst others) makes the observationthat not voting is a particular affront to the political elite because people are withholding their consent.
When more than half of the polity perceives itself outside of the electoral system you begin to have social contract problems. This is very discomfiting to the machine politicians in power.
Thus schemes such as this create the illusion of a valid social contract.
#
Your concerns over personal freedom are quaint in this day and age, Mrs. K ;-)
#
Sep '11
Re: Another Mandate: Compulsory Voting
We intuit that the majority of the apathetic and ignorant would vote left, and there are all kinds of logical explanations. But there is some empirical evidence: Polls that survey "adults" consistently lean way left of polls that survey "likely voters". Which of course explains why the advocates of compulsory voting are always on the left.
Apr '11
Re: Another Mandate: Compulsory Voting
"Why should the apathetic and ignorant (ie, the people who currently don't vote) be dragged to the polls?"
So that the dissolute Democrat Party can maintain it's hold on state power.
The same reason votes by dead people, illegal immigrants, felons, and imaginary people including multiple and ID free votes are deviously defended and encouraged.
Jun '12
Re: Another Mandate: Compulsory Voting
The left has had a very hard time controlling its totalitarian impulses since The One got elected. First it was the ObamaCare mandate, now this.
They need to be smacked down really hard in November.
Re: Another Mandate: Compulsory Voting
I hadn't heard it phrased that way, but I love it.