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Low general election turnout likely with ‘dull as dishwater’ Sunak and Starmer
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2024
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UK Politics
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Which is why voting should be compulsory. Even if you only write 'Shove it' on the ballot paper.
What would that achieve Vs just not voting? You're filtering out the population that don't want to vote either way. I don't think any party would suddenly care more if they could "see" people spoiling their ballot paper Vs just not filling it in.
You'd then also have to set up some sort of commission to fine people for not voting. Doesn't sound like an effective use of time.
Actually a great question, and the answer isn't necessarily obvious for someone who hasn't had experience with compulsory voting.
The effect of compulsory voting is that voter suppression techniques (discouraging people from wanting to vote, making it hard for certain people to vote, etc.), like the ones being discussed here become impossible. The AEC has to make it easy for every Australian to vote, and the government has to fund them appropriately to be able to do that. Elections are always held on a Saturday, to ensure the maximum amount of people can vote on the day. Prepolling is also extremely easy for people who can't make it on the day. Most people do have a preference one way or the other, even if that preference isn't enough to get out and vote normally. By making it compulsory, even those people will have their say. You can't run a campaign designed less to make yourself seem good than to simply make people think it's not worth the effort of voting. You have to actually convince people yes, you are the better option.
Yes, some people still choose to give an informal vote (often unofficially referred to as "spoiling" their ballot). Putting a blank ballot in the box, or writing something you think is funny, or drawing a penis on the ballot, are popular examples of deliberate informal votes. In 2022, we had a voter turnout of 89.82% of enrolled voters. Of those, just 5.19% ballots were informal. It's impossible to know how many of the informal ballots were mistakes by the voter versus deliberately "spoilt" ballots. But that's a total formal vote of 85.16% of enrolled voters. Compare that to the UK's 67.3% turnout at the last UK general election and the difference is stark. Think also that the percentage of eligible voters who are enrolled to vote in Australia is much higher than in the UK, again due to the compulsory vote, and the difference becomes even more significant.
I was not expecting this answer. Thanks, it's actually made me rethink my views on the matter. 🙏
Well, spoiled ballots are tracked and when there's a higher than normal proportion of spoiled ballots its clear there's something wrong, which can be the basis for various courses of action.
Calling it a spoiled ballot is usually fine, but from my time doing work for the AEC I wanna point out that technically, what @baggins@beehaw.org described above isn't what would be classified as a "spoiled" ballot. It's an informal vote. Officially, spoiled ballots are when a voter brings it back to the polling official and says "I made a mistake, can you give me another one?" They go in a special envelope and never go in the ballot box, unlike informal votes.
TIL!
I can't comment on the effectiveness, but doesn't Australia do this? Their voter turnout is around 90%. I think the 10% are the real part of eligible voters who don't want to vote not the 30-40% you see in some other countries. What do you think?
Because some of those will vote legitimately. 'You want to slag off the government/MPs? Then vote - or keep your trap shut and suck it up.' That needs to be on posters.
And to wheel out the old chestnut - people died so that we can sit on our arses and complain. Get out and vote.
And of course you can always vote by post. Not exactly difficult.