Voting in Australia is Mandatory - and Fun. Could It Work in the US? | NBCLX 

Also, Australia has preferential voting rather than “first past the post” which is used by the US. That’s way more interesting than the idea of compulsory voting.

what he didnt mention is that the BBQs at polling stations (which are usually public schools) are put on by the Parents & Citizens Committee of that school, so all money raised goes towards the school 👍

voter turn out before compulsory voting was as high as 71% but fell to 60% in 1922...this was such a cause for concern that the gov of the time bought in compulsory voting....

I love that you covered this. Of course compulsory voting could work elsewhere but the other things that go along with it in Australia is what makes it really effective. Things like: polling day being a Saturday, the Australian Electoral Commission - and the rules for being employed there, the electoral roll being national and accessible for every election. Also, being enrolled to vote is separate to being a member of a political party. That’s one of the downsides of the U.S. system, I think. And we vote with pencil/pen and paper - hack proof voting - and we have scrutineers. I feel lucky we have this system.

To all those who carry on about having to vote . You don't actually have to vote , you just have to get your name crossed of the roll , once that is done you can do what ever you want , my sister worked as a election counter and she said some of the stuff written on the ballot paper is interesting one person went to the trouble of drawing a picture of one politician doing something to another politician from behind

They ran out of sausages just as we voted yesterday. My partner had to have a bacon and egg roll and I had halloumi roll

He didn’t mention that we also have preferential voting not first past the post.

Wish US would do this…

Yes there is mandatory voting, but if you have an excuse and fill out a form with the reason, common sense will prevail; e.g. my wife was giving birth, but my favourite a friend filed a form at the poll, for his brother who had diarrhoea (a hang over )

If you want a "true" democracy then every voice has to be heard. Compulsory voting here in Australia is great because it instils the sense of civil duties in us, so in times such as a pandemic, people with a civil duty to care about and look after each other - which is exactly why we had a much higher success rate with vaccination here in Australia, and many more of us did the right thing and masked up. The vast majority of us Aussies realised the importance of making sure our elderly and immune compromised didn't die, and none of us wanted to risk being left with long covid, so we are more willing to take responsibility for ourselves, our families, our communities and our work places, and most importantly each other. Compulsory voting makes us ALL responsible for our present and our future - If you don't vote you have no right to whinge when anything goes wrong, and you definitely have no right to criticise. If you want that right, then vote.....America, stop with the rally b/s already, not necessary, total waste of good money, and stops the corporations huge donations to politicians, meaning the NRA loses it's control and you can pass gun control laws, and the Pharma's also lose control

PLEASE Bring it to the usa.

Not exactly compulsory voting,what is a mandatory duty of a citizen is applying for a ballot,at a poll station or postal.having recieved one if you feel that strongly about it throw it in the bin or in the privacy of the booth get out the pen and vent off.Thats legal.Curiously compulsory voting was introduced in the horse and buggy days by the rural right who thought their rural base was suppressed by the urban left.

People have to wear clothing, why is that not considered a violation of ones personal and political freedom? US citizens must participate in the jury selection process and can not refuse to participate if selected, how is that not considered infringing on civil liberties? The most disgusting and reprehensible arguement that has been made in my opinion; the votes of people who aren't engaged or who are considered by whom ever to be sufficiently engaged in the political process have less intrinsic value than thise who are more engaged. It is discriminatory, arbitrarily subjective as well as absolutely and totally undemocratic by definition and is a view that ignores or is ignorant of fact, the evidence overwhelmingly suggests that compulsory participation in the electoral process actually increases political awareness and engagement. The United States is a clear example and by no means the only example of how if a majority of participants in the electoral process is heavily skewed towards the politically hyper engaged and hyper partisan the result overtime will increasingly reflect the incentive reward structure of that system which is extremists running the political parties, espousing extreme policies and enacting extremist legislation on all sides. If the system incentivises extremist views, legislation, policies and political discourse flows away from the centre where most people, the apathetic and politically engaged alike statistically reside. Compulsory voting, as it is conducted in Australia isn't really compulsory voting in practice. It more accurately be described as compulsory participation (refuse to vote & accept a small fine or write a letter offering an excuse) because the ballots are anonymous/secret. Once a voter has their name crossed off the electoral roll at a polling place there is no way to Identify how that particular individual did or did not vote. Another benefit is it all but eliminates by operation voter suppression year. as anything other than maximising voters ease and opportunity to meet their legal requirement to attend a polling booth. Voter ID is rendered unnecessary as a high participation rate is inherently more resilient as fraud stands out like a sore thumb in data in addition to any systematic attempt to rig the outcome, a practically virtual impossibility. It could also go a very long way toward reducing inequality and go a long way towards lifting the pay and working conditions of everyday Americans. A lot of inequality in the US seemingly is by design and due in no small part to capture of the political system by businesses and corporate interests whose monetary donations fund voter turnout campaigns. In a system of 90+% participation electoral campaigns focus on policies not postal address. Statistics clearly indicate those that have least, participate the least and so those demographics are almost completely ignored/unrepresented by politicians that aren't incentivised to communicate with or craft policies that seek to persuade or redress the concerns of that demographic. ✌️☮️❤️🇦🇺🥂

love me Freedom Snag

Screw that. Take my paper because I don't want yours.

[Democracy, vote Or we Will fine you. Free to choose but not free to say no? Non of the above? Agree or be punished.]

Voting in Australia is NOT compulsory. As a citisen you must be on the voting role and turn up on voting day. You do NOT have to vote, you can NOT fill out your voting forms and deposit them in the bins and no one knows.

What happens if you are Jehovah witness or not polotical

It isn't. They play on the words to make it sound like you have to. I've never enrolled. I've never voted. I don't even do census. They tried to send me a fine and if I paid it it would automatically enrol me so I didn't. If you vote once you will also be automatically enrolled. If you're not enrolled you don't have to vote. When I rang them to complain I had to force the information from them. Young people if you don't want to vote don't enrol and don't pay the intimidating fine that you don't have to pay unless you're enrolled. Forcing people to vote for something they don't understand or disagree with is wrong.

So glad we don't have compulsory voting here.

So biased video...

#AbolishMandatoryVoting #AustralianVotingRigged