[Serious] Compulsory voting in a federal election.

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Should citizens be required legally to vote in a federal election of their country? I personally like the sound of America where you can vote if you want to. But in Australia you must vote or cop a fine.

I don't like the idea of voting for morons who cannot run a country correctly, what is your opinion?
 
Re: Compulsory voting in a federal election.

Actually, in Australia, you don't have to vote.
You don't legally have to be enrolled on the Electoral Roll. Even if you are, you are only legally required to go to a polling place, you can get your green and white ballot papers and then rip them up; you don't actually have to vote.
 
Re: Compulsory voting in a federal election.

Not what I was told, it said that voting is compulsory, without a proper explanation e.g muslim religious or w/e then you will be fined $20.
 
Re: Compulsory voting in a federal election.

You should REALLY come to Romania if you want to see fucking morons who can't run a country for shit. Seriously.
At least we don't have to vote if we don't want to...
 
Re: Compulsory voting in a federal election.

I think you should only vote if you want to.
I don't 'hate' voting though.
 
Re: Compulsory voting in a federal election.

I dont think you should have to vote, but i dont think pepole who dont should be able to bitch about what is going on. Bc you did not put in any input to change it. Also While usally the 2 main party canidates are for the most part horrible there is usally independent parties and grass root Org with canidates running vote for one of them. I also find that voteing for a person is dumb. I like to vote for laws them selves! I dont know if they do that in kangaroo land but here lots of laws are voted for. I can say yes ir no and that actually means something!
 
Re: Compulsory voting in a federal election.

Well as far as I know, we citizens in kangaland cant vote regarding laws, we can "protest" regarding them, but in the end it's the senates decesion.

Regardless if you vote or not, you should be allowed t bitch about what's going on, due to the fact that you're a citizen of that country and because you may not have voted because both candidates are douchebags or their policies didn't appeal to you.
 
Re: Compulsory voting in a federal election.

Well, I think the whole political thing is just bullshit. They talk about something that will most likely be made in 2020.
Just look at Stuttgart 21.
 
Re: Compulsory voting in a federal election.

Nimph i was reading about, Your Genreal election You had 73 canidates run. Out of all those you could not find one the kinda represented you? Also before a law is passed into law there it is voted on by the pepole
 
Re: Compulsory voting in a federal election.

Kitty said:
Nimph i was reading about, Your Genreal election You had 73 canidates run. Out of all those you could not find one the kinda represented you? Also before a law is passed into law there it is voted on by the pepole
Click to expand...

I'm definitely sure that there were not 73 candidates, due to each candidate would have to be apart of their own 'party', and we only have 2 or 3 parties, and only the leaders of these parties can run for prime minister.

That's for federal elections however.

State elections, there would possibly be 73 but we don't choose out of them either because these people are representing different areas, in my area it would still be 2 idiots that I'd have to choose between.
 
Re: Compulsory voting in a federal election.

I don't think people should be 'forced' to vote in federal elections because most people are middle class that work reg hours (even more if they're poor) and just can't devote the time to:
a) looking up the positions of the candidates and the pros/cons of voting for ea.
b) actually going to the voting podium and vote
This will lead to:
many people just picking a random person to vote for, which may also lead to some dumbass becoming president or smth.
If you take the time to look up the positions of the candidates and take the time to go to the voting podium, chances are you're going to be well informed and make an educated decision, hopefully leading to the election of a person who is 'right' for the job.
 
Re: Compulsory voting in a federal election.

There are actually tons of parties! I mean just bc those canidates did not get much attetion didnt mean they weret running Even the Communist party of austraila had a member running. Dont feel bad The Uk had over 100 pepole run and us probally in the thousands. You just dont hear about them bc there not main party
 
Re: Compulsory voting in a federal election.

umm, no.
In the beginning, there are many candidates but the number is lowered significantly over the course of the race down to a few, who are the main candidates who you hear about.
 
Re: Compulsory voting in a federal election.

All the canidates though are still in technically in the race though! You can still vote for them! Most pepole only believe there are only 2 or 3 canidates running when this is really never the case! There are only 2 MAIN Canidates that are part of the MAIN parties. Alot of times ballots will not have the Independet candiates on them But you are free to write them in! a quick internet search frys will show you The 100 and so that ran for the UK Prime minster seat. Some of the 3rd parties such as the communist party of scotland actually won a few seats. THERE PARTY NEVER HAD NEWS COVERAGE. You can also see that not all seats in the last austrailan race were not won by the two that got all the coverage! I think you most have had some confusion with primary voteing! that is how a party picks who they will support for the race. Most parties even the smaller parties have these. there are always more then the 2 main parties running! no legislation in austraila Or the UK limit the number of parties that can run for anyseat. In the united states you dont even need to be backed by a party to run. The framers of the US constituion were against politcal parties bc they belived it skewed personalitys. The only reason you hear about only 2 or 3 pepole running is bc there the only ones with any real chance. That dosent mean that who came in last didnt race! The race down to a few is just inside the party! Many parties do it BC many parties run, Like i said a quick google search will show you all the parties that ran for the prime minster seat in Austraila
 
Re: Compulsory voting in a federal election.

No, actually, you can't still vote for a person if he/she is out of the running. You can vote to elect an independent party but that's just the first step in a very long process.
As for the amt. of people in the running, it depends on the seat they are running for. For instance: In the US Presidential race, there's hundreds of people in the running in the beginning, then over month's they narrow it down to 2 main candidates (1 if the president currently serving is in his 1st term, as he is automatically in the running) then usually 2 or 3 indiv. that have been nominated. You can vote for any of the 5 ppl but not anyone else.
You can nominate individuals/3rd parties before the official voting begins but not once it has started.
 
Re: Compulsory voting in a federal election.

Yes but there still in the main race! Ralph nader has been on the actual ballot atleast when obama ran that was my first presidental vote. Not nader! But really more then two canidates run in the main race for president. There are 2 main canidates 1 republican 1 democrat. Yes you could vote for anyone you want, But actual green party canidates run some even winning some of the electoral votes. They never win the state But they still get some. If these third party canidates were not in the race legally/legit they would not get any seats in the electoral college of the united states and really off the wall partys could not win seats of parliment in the UK race I.E The communist party of scotland which won 1 seat. There are no laws in the UK or the USA that limit the number of canidates in a presidental race
 
Re: Compulsory voting in a federal election.

I didn't say only 2 people ran, if you re-read my post I mention the fact that there are 2 MAIN candidates + the individual party candidates.
The point is: in the beginning there are hundreds, in the actual election its weeded down to a few. This doesn't mean that people were kicked out of the race, this just means that they have given up on the race. Or, in the case of democrats and republicans: only 1 is chosen from ea. party, so once one member is chosen, another cannot run whilst still being part of that party.
 
Re: Compulsory voting in a federal election.

Oh yeah Thats right Sorry i missunder stood you! It was fun to talk to someone that knows there stuff. It was fun
 
Re: Compulsory voting in a federal election.

Np, anytime :P.

As we're on the subject, I think it's important to point out that, the Presidential/Vice Presidential election in America is far from Democratic.
1. The general population does not actually vote for the Pres/Vice Pres, they vote for a representative of the Electoral College (an elector)
a. Each state is given a certain amt. of electors (equaling the total number of representatives that the state has in congress, meaning, their senators (2) + their members of the house of representatives (at least 1) )
b. The number of votes that each state is not proportional to the populations, meaning that a vote in a smaller state is worth more than a vote in a larger state

2. The electors have the ability to change their vote at any time (even once the voting has begun), meaning that, an elector may change his/her vote at the last second, meaning that anyone that voted for that elector has essentially changed their vote.

3. The "Winner-Take-All" policy that is enforced in 48/50 states means that the presidential election is not really 1 election but rather many individual elections then 1 major election based on those individual election (the "winner take all" policy is the policy that states that, once the votes have been tallied for a state which uses this policy, the candidate which received the most votes wins ALL of the electoral votes.
a. This means that, if you are in a state enforcing this policy and you vote for a candidate which does not end up being the majority in that state, your vote essentially does not matter anymore.
b. This also means that larger states matter more to the candidates than the smaller states (as they have more electoral votes and matter more in the election)

So, in the end: the Presidential elections are very confusing and non-democratic, no matter how democratic they appear to be.
 
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