Posted on 06/21/2012 4:23:13 PM PDT by ColdOne
Peter Orszag, former head of the Obama Office of Management and Budget, is desperate. With even Roll Call recognizing that President Obama is fighting an uphill battle for re-election, Orszag is floating a trial balloon: mandatory voting. His call for forced voting comes in an op/ed for Bloomberg News:
The U.S. prides itself as the beacon of democracy, but it’s very likely no U.S. president has ever been elected by a majority of American adults.
It’s our own fault -- because voter participation rates are running below 60 percent, a candidate would have to win 85 percent or more of the vote to be elected by a majority.
Compulsory voting, as exists in Australia and more than two dozen other countries, would fix that problem. As William Galston of the Brookings Institution argues, “Jury duty is mandatory; why not voting?”
During the 2008 election cycle, voter participation was approximately 64 percent; in 2004, it was about the same. Orszag wants that number up. Why?
Beyond simply raising participation, compulsory voting could alter the role of money in elections. Turn-out-the-vote efforts, often bankrolled by big-money groups, would become largely irrelevant. Negative advertising could be less effective, because a central aim of such ads is to discourage participation in the opponent’s camp.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
I saw this headline and thought: Is this for real? Now these Obozo commies want to impose mandatory (aka "forced") voting? In the U.S.??
November 6th can't come soon enough...
Hell why not! Then the IRS can also penalize us for not voting!
What happened to Male Land Owners only
They also vote who only stay at home and watch TV. They’re saying “I don’t give a s@#$.” Why force them to make a statement favoring either candidate, when they in fact are making a statement that they both suck too much to be bothered with. This proposal is anti-democratic blather.
Post of the day.
Well, you lose the choice to choose no one so collusion runs amok as certain special interests get their way whether you choose a or b.
“While ‘patriotic’ music blares from loudspeakers....”
To the tune of ‘The Internationale’
I'm sure our learned colleague Herr Galston realizes that most localities take their Jury call lists from the voter registration rolls.....kinda chicken or egg, isn't it?
A Constititutional Republic, to be specific.....
The last time I heard something about him ‘voting’ the number “ voted PRESENT 134 times” sticks out in my memory.
Obama once explained that “voting PRESENT was my way of saying I was open to working with other legislators on issues”....what he really meant was “I’m open for bribes.”
I have multiple personalities that will need to vote too.
188 million of them.
This is COMMUNIST.
Planting the seeds of a second American revolution.
“Sorry, Ann Althouse has this right the other day, we also have a right NOT to vote.”
It’s not just that. People have to fight for their right to vote. If people are too lazy to get up and vote on their own then they have no business deciding the future of our country.
Oh the urge to not pay the fine and wait for them to come...
When a govt. institutes forced voting it’s not long before there is only one candidate on the ballot.
It would be a logistical nightmare trying to force everyone to the polls.
I was thinking that mandatory voting would make it harder to fix the elections, since it wouldn’t be possible to look at the voter rolls late in the day and supply votes for those who didn’t show up. However, with mandatory voting—there actually would be *more* of an incentive to supply votes for those who didn’t show.
Nope, voluntary voting with mandatory ID check is the only way to go. People who must vote absentee (e.g. military) should have some mechanism to be able to verify their identity on the absentee ballot.
It would be a logistical nightmare trying to force everyone to the polls.
I was thinking that mandatory voting would make it harder to fix the elections, since it wouldn’t be possible to look at the voter rolls late in the day and supply votes for those who didn’t show up. However, with mandatory voting—there actually would be *more* of an incentive to supply votes for those who didn’t show.
Nope, voluntary voting with mandatory ID check is the only way to go. People who must vote absentee (e.g. military) should have some mechanism to be able to verify their identity on the absentee ballot.
Why do liberals demand all people must vote, but then ridicule the Tea Party for the idea of voting to change the system?
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