• NIB@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I dont understand why Americans are horny for mandatory voting. Voting is mandatory in Greece, it makes no difference. It is theoretically illegal to not vote but are you going to imprison people for not voting? So it isnt enforced, at all.

    No one is voting because it is mandatory. Greece has 60% participation.

    • Uranium 🟩@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      I believe Australia has mandatory voting and achieves a ~95% participation of registered voters basically every election, though they do enforce it with either a day in court or a fine.

      I do wonder if you fined people, or wasted a day of theirs with court, whether it would have an impact in Greece after a couple of elections?

      • Event_Horizon@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        We swing between 93-95% participation

        We alao make voting as easy as possible with voting opening 2-4 weeks in advance of election day, election day is always a weekend and as long as you vote before or on election day it’s counted.

        Also democracy sausages

        I think such a high turn out makes our politicians a bit more honest with less empty promises since they can’t dissuade anyone from voting.

        • blind3rdeye@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Right. And for people who try to argue that they shouldn’t be forced to choose between people they like like, or whatever, it’s important to understand that it is only mandatory to get your name ticked off the list. You don’t actually have to submit a valid vote. You can choose to just turn in a blank ballot paper, or write “fuck you” or whatever you like. There are no laws against that.

          So the ‘mandatory voting’ just makes it mandatory to put in the small amount of effort required to show up; but doesn’t force you to express an opinion. (Of course, I’d say that you should submit a valid vote. But you don’t have to.)

      • NIB@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        You can not enforce new social norms like that. People, including voting ones, will revolt. They will call it undemocratic and a cash grab. You are just asking for trouble.

    • Wanderer@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I wouldnt want idiots having to vote then voting because some friend said some madeup thing or it was the last thing they seen on ticktok. If people don’t care and refuse to do the most minimum of looking into politics why should they decide my future

    • lorty@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      I agree many wouldn’t bother, but I still believe it should be every citizen’s duty to vote. It’s literally the bare minimum political involvement people can have.

    • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      because you could do literally anything else, and it would be more useful. Mandatory voting is the equivalent to asking everyone in the room what they think about every interaction that ever happens. It’s fully redundant.

      • 3volver@lemmy.worldOP
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        1 year ago

        Yea I think I’ll add this to the v4. Incentivize rather than punish. Just give people an extra $100 a month in their UBI for voting.

            • notfromhere@lemmy.ml
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              1 year ago

              Then it’s a punishment of $100 if you don’t vote. UBI as a reward for participating in our democracy would be a great step. A punishment would be a fine or jailtime.