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it's election season, Beehaw, so — what are your thoughts on compulsory (mandatory) voting? (beehaw.org)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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good idea/bad idea, necessary democratic reform or authoritarian imposition? are there better or worse ways to do it?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

From reading this thread so far, there seem to be good arguments for mandatory voting in a similar fashion and infrastructure as it currently is set up in Australia.

I still think compulsory voting isn't the best way, though. Instead, the focus should be on getting people interested in politics in the first place. With the big three or four parties in my country, I (and many others my age) feel like voting for them is useless, even if you agree with their campaign promises, because at most 5% of those promises will even be partly realised. Holding politicians accountable and punishing them appropriately for acting very far from their campaign promises should be established, otherwise the mental consensus will stay "Why vote for anyone, if they just do something entirely different anyway?"