Should registering to vote be made mandatory? (Vanity)

Self | 11/01/04 | JusticeTalion

[Gothguy]

I cannot disagree more with your premise. An "ignorant electorate is a dangerous body," as is an "indoctrinated electorate body."

What you fail to realize is that voting is not a right, but a priveledge (sp?), as is other things in life, such as driving a car or owning a home.

As registered voters, we must educate our children on the importance of voting, but we also have the duty and obligation to inform our children that voting is not a "right."

We cannot stoop so low as to begin indoctrinating our children on voting, which, even if meant in the "best of terms" about voting, will ultimately lead to corruption and influence by our "educated elite", which I cannot, tolerate.

Gothguy

[naturalman1975]

We have compulsory registration and compulsory voting here in Australia. It's probably the biggest reason the Australian Labor Party ever wins an election.

Because a majority of the uninformed voters tend to go towards the left - because (a) the left policies often sound good if you don't think about how they can actually be made to work, and (b) a higher than average number of the uninformed tend to be from poorer backgrounds and believe Labor is for the workers.

Compulsory registration and compulsory voting might work if being informed was compulsory. But you can't make that happen.

(Incidentally in referendums here (which are needed to change the Constitution), compulsory voting does tend to work well - because in those situations, most people take the vote seriously and properly consider the issues - and those who aren't informed, or can't decide, tend to go for the status quo. So it does have some good points - just not for general elections).

[KC Burke]

Even in colonial times, this land was used to "participatory" processes. That meant voting and/or local representation. In no way is a "mandatory" process in keeping with our traditions.

[TX Bluebonnet]

A lot of people don't register to vote because they don't want to be called for jury duty. Their choice, shouldn't make them if they don't want to.