YES! Every citizen should be involved in our democracy.
54%
NO! But automatic registration would increase turnout.
46%
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Actually, this survey ignores, the fact we need both. Both will take away, politicians ability to manipulate voting rates.
I do believe that everyone should participate and I have voted in every election in my adult life including local ones. However, I do not think that making it mandatory is workable. For those who are mentally or physically incapacitated, whether temporarily or permanently, or for those dealing with a sudden emergency, the process of getting an abstention or deferral or "excuse" of whatever kind, would create increased regulations, paperwork, red tape and hassle. What should happen is that our social structures should become more like they exist in other areas of the world, where people are proud to be able to vote and eager to participate. Social influences should move more and more people towards the goal of larger election turn-out. Those who chose not to participate should be urged to step up to the plate. Registration should very definitely become much simpler and a part of the privileges/responsibilities of becoming an adult in society.
Both were actually right answers, we do need to make it easy for people to vote, that would increase turnout, we should also have a federal uniform voting system, not different rules in each county, state etc,also paper ballots, hand counted, even vote by mail as we do in Washington State, and Oregon.
If everyone has to file their tax returns, than there is nothing wrong with everyone being required to vote. BOTH are civic responsibilities that are the price we pay to have the kind of country we CLAIM to be so proud of.
Australia has it and while I lived there, they don't see it as taking away a right, but a civic duty. And with mandatory voting, the government can't screw with taking the right to vote away, because it's mandated.
Yes, everyone =should= vote, in -spite- of what the Republicans are trying to do (which is as 'subtle' as a brick up side the head -- "Sieg Heil, y'all"). However, we have to admit that Americans {as a =general= statement} are/can be a bunch of cantankerous pains-in-the-behind, too often "just because"! >>sigh<<
That being the case, =telling= Americans they -have- to do =ANY=thing= is just asking for trouble .. -even- -if- -it- -is- -something- -they- =want= -to- -do-! OTOH, if they voted and -were- =given=, say, $20 "for their time and energy" >koff, koff<, you'd get one hell of a big turn out! And it would be -easy- to keep ::fraud:: out of it. (Tie it to one's SSN...) Use positive reinforcement (-get- money for participating) instead of negative (being -fined- for -not- participating). Yes, it sucks, but what would you rather have -- the present minimal participation (and all -that- brings) or huge turnouts? It's that simple.
In 1987 I was on a ship in Callao Peru. A few dock workers spoke English. EVERY ONE asked me how the USA could elect Reagan and rattled off the full list of his war crimes, trading missles for the hostages in Iran, giving Saudi Arabia advanced weapons in return for Saudi funding organized crime in Central America to to hire mercenaries and murder candidates trying to acheive democracy, on behalf of US Fruit, selling Saddam Hussein chemical weapons via Cheney's Halliburton, etc. I was stunned, very few Americans knew any of this because it wasn't discussed during football games. I had dinner with the family of one man, and THEY ALL knew more about US politics than most Americans. No coincidence, Peru had recently impeached, convicted, and JAILED their right wing criminal government, and was a democracy for the first time in the history of Peru. I asked what brought this about, Peru is poor and everyone works long days. The family told me it was ONE LAW that changed Peru. The government passed a law instituting a fine of one week's pay for not voting. Forced to vote or pay a fine, people decided they were going to be INFORMED voters. It doesn't take long for people to notice that politics is more interesting than football. After learning about Peruvian Politics, they'd expanded to Central and South America, and of course that meant they couldn't avoid noticing that the USA routinely murdered entire governments all over Central and South America if they threatened to implement Democracy.
That was my thought. I actually think people shouldn't vote unless they can explain the issues, but you can't test that qualification, and anyway, right now we have an ENTIRE PARTY who vote against their own interests. So, let everyone vote, maybe we get 10% who vote without knowing what they are voting for, but we get 90% voting Democrat.
I have long advocated for compulsory voting. It works in Australia, why not here.
I strongly support ALLOWING every citizen to vote. Citizens DO NOT lose their citizenship when they are incarcerated or after they have “paid their debt to society,” and therefore their right to vote should not be abridged.
REQUIRING citizens to vote is a “horse of a different color,” and it certainly would violate our Freedom of Speech as guaranteed by our Constitution. When a government mandates voting, it is equivalent to that government mandating that the citizen attend a church (even though the government does not mandate the particular church that the citizen must attend).
Mandating voting provides the government (and the private corporations that count the vote by methods that are kept secret from both the public and the government, itself) with major “intelligence” about the populace:
1. Since every ballot is serialized to correlate with the registration documents, how every voter voted is known. There is no “secret ballot.”
2. Since every citizen is required to be registered, the address of every citizen is known. It becomes impossible to “go off the grid” and live autonomously.
3. When voting is mandated, the citizen is REQUIRED to participate in a system that many people feel is corrupt to the core. Effectively, the citizen is forced to “buy into” the government and the “system” both actually, and probably more importantly, psychologically.
As a final note, ALL ballots should provide a BINDING “none-of-the-above” choice for each race.