Posted on 11/24/2004 8:33:51 AM PST by Publius
After every election, the True Believers of the losing side sip this particular brand of Kool-Aid and argue for ideological purity for their party. This year the Left has sipped, but with a difference. Rather than argue for ideological purity, some on the Left are now suggesting compulsory voting. What better way, they think, to get that vast pool of liberals and “progressives” to come to the polls! Vote -- or pay a fine -- or go to prison.
This one is going to be as popular as a skunk at a church picnic.
If anything, too many uninformed idiots are voting. In my perfect world, only taxpayers, landowners and military (acive and veteran) could vote.
This is an awful idea! Let the ignorant and uninformed stay home.
Do we really want people who are too lazy to get off the sofa and quit eating cheesy poofs to vote to decide the future of the country? We'll have Jerry Springer suddnly the most powerful political figure.
Riddle me this, Batman. Everyone bemoans the "light" turnout and complains about how many people decline to cast a ballot. But on the other hand, the media and the parties shoot for accurate predictions by sampling about 1,250 of the population and they are flabbergasted if their prediction is off the mark. Quite the pair of ducks, eh wot?
Ditto Kiddo!
The less that vote, the more mine counts. I wish everyone would stay home on election day, because I am not!
By "taxpayer", do you mean people who pay the income tax or sales tax, or people who pay the property tax -- which is the way things worked before 1825?
Ah, a South Park Republican. Didn't Jerry Springer serve in some function as a Democrat or run for office?
I have a hunch that the non-voters are more likely to include the "leave-me-alone" types, who are not excited about Democrat plans.
Oh yeah, compulsary voting got them all to turn in their guns by force and hire/vote in a bunch of liberal wack jobs.
Oh yeah, we wanna be just like them, NOT!!!
I love the Aussies, but forced "voting" is not an American concept. If you don't vote, then obviously you don't care or know who to vote for. THAT, works for me.
The moron doesn't get it. We need fewer people voting, not more.
Maybe if we could require the voter to be able to recite from memory his Senators, representative, Governor, President, VP, at least one member of the cabinet?
Compulsory voting? In a Republic? What a crock.
I suspect the Aussies didn't experience anything like the old stakeholder franchise that existed in this country.
Weren't literacy tests required in the South for a century or so?
Right on! I am constantly horrified by the talk shows where they send someone out on the street to "interview people about their political knowledge." Hannity did one recently with fliper and the people who voted for Kerry didn't have a clue as to who the Dem VP was, what positions Kerry or Bush had, etc. I also remember a street interview that Jay Lenno did where he asked voters on their opinons and they were equally clueless.
Rather than focusing on "more" voters, we need more eductated voters.
Voting is a right. If someone doesn't want to exercise their rights, fine. But forcing people to vote totally misses the boat (hey I'm a poet).
There should be nothing compulsory about voting. The only necessary things should be the voter is a legitimate American citizen, has a proper ID, is legally registered, is at the right place at the right time, and performs the process correctly.
The lazy and foolish need not and should not be included to make the process legitimate. We have enough fools already voting as it is.
Compulsory voting forces people to engage with their democracy -- maybe the United States should try a dose.
Uhm, how about NO!
compulsory voting=bad idea
I am not an historian but even I don't remember any mandatory voting laws here. Qualifications have come and gone, districts have been spun and unspun, and the Constitution itself has been dissected, amended, and fideled with over the years and survived.
Suggestions outside out borders are welcome, but being pigheaded Americans, we like our history, we like our Constitution and so far, we've done "OK" at the polls without force.
The only one who loses if they don't vote is the voter. Unless of course you have a socialistic mindset and require a couple thousand people to convince you that you voted properly per their advice.
:-)
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