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Originally Posted by Nodrog
Because compulsory voting is a complete sham which treats the symptoms rather than the underlying cause, and any country with such a system is fundamentally broken.
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Dont be so sure. Australia is not fundamentally broken, frankly i would go so far as to say that britain (without it) is in a worse shape politically than Australia is, due to their three party political system trying to squeeze into a two party electoral system, and the associated under/over representation that results in.
Further, if you know that it is compulsory to vote, you are more likely to become engaged in the political machinations going on, because ultimately you are going to vote for sure*, and thus you might as well make it an informed vote.
*approx 95% of the eligible population vote, the 5% are made up of either those opposed to compulsion and will choose to take the $50 fine, or those who are unable to vote through illness etc.
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Originally Posted by Tietäjä
In fact, you'd probably end up with people casting more moron votes than before, which would merely be counterproductive.
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Yes, because there are proportionally more voters actually voting, there is going to be more "informal" and donkey votes. Apparently, an additional 5% of all votes are informal, but whether this is intentional (blank, scribbled or slanderous messages written on the ballot) or not (simply incorrectly filled out, eg missing a number or only writing a 1 with no second et al preference etc) is not specified. Donkey votes may or may not represent the voter's actual decision making, and whilst i would hazard that there would be more instances (proportionally) of donkey voting in australia than elsewhere (it doesnt seem to make sense to take the time to voluntarily vote only to waste your time donkey voting, though it does apparently happen), the result is that a much larger proportion of people in australia vote (~90%).
As such, because people are going to vote, they might as well make it worthwhile to educate themselves on the issues and vote accordingly. Thus, it could be said that because voting is compulsory, there is a reason for people to participate in the political system to a greater extent than in countries where voting is voluntary. Further, it reduces the likelihood of standover and other tactics designed to prevent people from voluntarily voting as ultimately they do have to vote - something that has been a concern in some african countries of late.
Thus, i believe that yours and other's views are "wrong" (such as it is) on this issue.