• NIB@lemmy.world
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    8 months 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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      8 months 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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        8 months 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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          8 months 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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        8 months 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.

    • Quokka@quokk.au
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      8 months ago

      Does your legal system work on imprisonment or nothing at all? Sounds very extreme.

      Here it’s a small fine, but it’s also a day off and takes like 20 mins to go do plus you can get a delicious sausage. So it’s a no brainer that people go vote.

      Greece is a pretty failed state from what I’ve seen, wouldn’t read too much into what they don’t do.

      As for why compulsory voting, it helps moderate extremism and represents most of society as a whole.

      • spujb@lemmy.cafe
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        8 months ago

        it helps moderate extremism and represents most of society as a whole.

        thoughts on Selb and Lachat, 2009?:

        In particular, the analyses suggest that CV compels a substantial share of uninterested and less knowledgeable voters to the polls. These voters, in turn, cast votes that are clearly less consistent with their own political preferences than those of the more informed and motivated voluntary voters. Claims that CV promotes equal representation of political interests are therefore questionable.

      • NIB@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Here it’s a small fine

        People will call it a cashgrab, that will mostly affect poor people(since the rich people both vote and also dont care about small fines).

        it’s also a day off

        Greek elections are always on Sunday and people can be given a day off if their voting location is far away(especially back in the day, when moving your voting location was hard).

        Greece is a pretty failed state from what I’ve seen

        I have been shitting on Greece for my entire life, but it aint cool when non greeks do it. Yes, Greece is fucked but i wouldnt really call it a failed state. It is a shithole but only greeks get to call it a shithole. It also relatively shitholey, in comparison to western european countries.

        It just happens to be the worst “western” country. And yes, it is in the East, but the West/East thing was a Cold War thing and Greece was with the “West”. Nowadays, many “eastern european” countries have reached and surpassed Greece.

        In any case, take a look at the wikipedia map, which countries have compulsory voting

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_voting

        If you exclude Australia, all other countries are shitholes. And i am sure australians will be the first to tell you that Australia is also a shithole and politically fucked.

        As for why compulsory voting, it helps moderate extremism and represents most of society as a whole.

        It doesnt. If anything, it might do exactly the opposite. When a greek neonazi party was popular, a lot of “apolitic” greeks supported it not because they supported neonazism but because “fuck the system, at least they will go in and smash some heads”. When clueless people are forced to vote, they might be clueless about what they are voting.

        America’s issue is the first past the post, winner takes all system. If the US had a more representative system, that allowed third parties and coalitions(like almost all other democratic countries have), things would have been better.

    • lorty@lemmy.ml
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      8 months 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.

      • 3volver@lemmy.worldOP
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        8 months 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.

    • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      8 months 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.