I saw a ChrisV post about the effects of compulsory voting in Australia:

Makes sense, but it's hard to judge the vitriol given that both America and Australia have had super controversial/dramatic elections lately.

Are Americans typically happy with non-compulsory? Has Trump changed that for you?

I'm also hoping for good links/reads. I was thinking particularly it'd be cool if there was some sort of analysis that tracked the language used in elections in countries that have compulsory and non-compulsory, i.e policy vs insult words or something like that. Or is the vitriol expected to be roughly the same and what changes is how similar each party's policies become?

I'm against it in principle as you see a load of populist nonsense masquerading as politics. The flip side is it might sort out the voter ID issues that you see in the USA. My hope is that it would make it harder for the GOP to invent bull**** reasons to make it harder for people to vote.

I believe the act of "not" voting is an expression of your freedom of speech right under the Constitution. Silence is a voice.

I would be against it.

I'm in favor of it. GOP keeps voter ID laws to suppress minority votes. If they could remove the registration process and make voting compulsory, then there would be a firmer mandate from the masses.

I agree.

The voter suppression efforts should not be combated by compulsory voting efforts. It should be combated by a bi-partisan effort to make it as easy as possible to obtain identification for all. And as easy as possible to vote. The fact that people get turned away or effectively blockaded from voting when they in fact want to vote is as un-American as it gets. It's disgusting.

Voter suppression efforts are a violation of the 1st Amendment IMO.

Having never voted, I'm strongly against it. But on an unrelated note, I agree that it would weight the opinion of morons even more highly than is currently the case.

I mean you could still spoil your ballot even in compulsory voting. Vote for all the candidates, turn in a blank ballot, write in Harambe. I have no idea if compulsory voting is constitutional or not but seems like compulsory voting with actually requiring turning in a valid ballot would be quite unconsititutional.

As long as only those actually eligible to vote end up voting, ONCE.

National ID and register is needed for it, based on socially security number, I guess, while furthermore register of actual voting should be kept closed, but allow individuals to see if their vote was cast the way they saw fit.

When I tell people in Europe, in US you can actually vote without ID depending on your residency, they look at me with complete and utter disbelief, most are truly unable to comprehend how this is even possible.

Must not have brought it up around anyone from UK, Scotland, Wales, or Switzerland.

So, assuming you are right, you have U.K. and Switzerland. U.K. Problem, Swiss heck if there is anyone I would trust voting without ID, it would be Swiss.

I didn't need ID for the Brexit referendum. A voting slip was posted through my door a month or two prior to the referendum which was then handed in when I went to vote.

The issue with the GOP's stance isn't that they want people to have ID to vote. The issue is that they bring in ID requirements then make it harder for people in specific demographics to obtain the necessary ID. I was going to go into more details here but there's another thread further down the page in which this has been discussed to death.

in denmark ive never needed id or registrering to vote.

Why?

Switzerland is 2nd tier honest; the UK and South Africa are first tier.

https://www.uea.ac.uk/documents/3154...2-b872ea0ac882

(Great Britain, not UK before anyone has a fit about it)

Rebel,

Looks like you were pretty wrong about voter ID in Europe. Maybe you should consider you're pretty wrong about people voting twice in the US?

Don't care if it's compulsory but the general Australian voting system is something I certainly would like to adopt.

Counterpoint: compulsory voting is racist

EU countries requiring ID to vote:
Belgium
Estonia
France
Germany
Greece
Ireland
Italy
Malta
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland ID or sword
Slovenia
Croatia
Austria
Netherlands, etc

Switzerland ID or sword?

We should go with that one. If you don't have an ID, bring a sword.

Switzerland is a good model for voting. Women have had the vote there since the 1970s!

Not researching all those countries, but right off the bat:

Switzerland the government sends every eligible citizen a registration card automatically before an election.

Ireland accepts 5 different kinds of IDs including bank or cc and non-photo ID

But, much more to the point. There's essentially no voter fraud in the US. You're just asking for more red tape for something that isn't a problem. Big government isn't always the answer.

Be nice to get a $250 tax break when you attach your voter receipt to your tax return. Using the word "compulsory" indicates a system where someone wanting to 'express their freedom of speech' by abstaining gets a legal penalty.

Ballots need to have a "[ ] conscientious no-vote" option, and there needs to be considerable cultural pressure on people to at least "go and not vote".

You don't even need to show the ballot card in the UK. You just give your name and are crossed of the list. I think what voter fraud that does exist is mainly based on postal votes.

btw What do people think about having a public record of what way people voted. Would Trump have won if there was a record of who his voters were? Would Leave have won if there was a record of who voted for brexit?

Mobster pressuring people how to vote would win every time, you communists would love it. There is a reason why you can't film yourself voting.
But letting people see how they voted while making it a felony for anyone else to do so, would get rid of at least some of the fraud and do a lot for people's confidence.

Whe the **** isn't this garbage being modded?