Essay on voting not compulsory

Submitted By alopastras
Words: 1248
Pages: 5
Open Document
Voting gives the government legitimacy- meaning they have the people’s support to make decisions. Let me just rephrase that they have the peoples SUPPORT to make the decisions. The word support is to have part of the weight to the whole, so if we vote and it may not even then persuade these politicians, then I don’t see the point of our vote at all.

Good……………………….. Mr Julius and classmates I’m Allee and I am here to address whether or not voting should be compulsory. Every year the voting season comes back around and you see the ads on television and you hear talk of the parties they disagree and agree with. I myself dread this time of year and I don’t even have to vote legally yet. Voting should not be compulsory because if you don’t think it will make a difference who gets elected then how does your vote matter, if we make it a law we will have more criminals and voting being mandatory would make it a duty not a right.

Which would you have at the ballots deciding an important election? Someone who wanted to be there and had interest in the outcome, or someone who couldn’t care less but is forced to vote anyway? The answer should be obvious! If you want a clear, fair and honest election, then leave it to the hands of the people who actually are interested, not those who do not.
What would be the point of enforcing a person to vote if they have not been able to decide which candidate is most deserving of their vote? Sometimes when people don’t vote it can send a message to the politics, in a way that demonstrates, these parties/ groups have nothing to persuade us with that makes us feel they’re worthy of our vote. People are placing empty votes in these ballot boxes and these aren’t even being counted for and have no point towards the election. But if you don’t vote you face a fine for not attending. Not voting and putting in a empty ballot is the exact same thing so if we had a choice to not vote! then we would have less pointless ballots to count that are blank and have no impact on the election whatsoever. Many parents are busy either with their hard working jobs, with family, their children’s needs and wants and even their own social lives as well. Voting in your community can be a time consuming thing that has to be done. You get there line up wait for people to read and write then walk out, and the same thing happens over and over again until you finally get to the front of the line, get a free booth and fill out your ballot, I’m fairly sure your all familiar with this process. So if people are being forced to vote and are there but don’t even fill out their ballots or just go for the random selection than what help are they to making the overall decision. Many people already complain about how most people are not well informed about politics and they make mistakes with their voting choices, so their impact of taking a random selection or not filling anything out at all doesn’t have any beneficence of the official decisions made.

Voting has not always been compulsory and part of our law. Queensland was the first Australian state to enforce compulsory voting in 1915, Victoria introduced compulsory voting in 1926, NSW and Tasmania in 1928 WA in 1936 and SA in 1942. In the whole of Australia in October 2004 13,098,461 people enrolled to vote which is 97.69% of our population but the turnout was only 12,354,983 people and 94.32 % of our population.
People argue that compulsory voting increases what they call “donkey votes” which are pointless votes that haven’t even been very well thought through. These donkey votes were identified in immense numbers throughout 2004, where people had done donkey votes numbering the ballot 1,2 and so on down the ballot paper, or 1,2 and so on up the ballot paper.
The formal House of Representatives votes cast, at the 2001 election, 34% had only written number 1 on their ballot, 17% did not complete the full sequence of numbers required and 13% used ticks and crosses. 22% blank
Show More

Related Documents: Essay on voting not compulsory

Compulsory Voting In America

their freedom of choosing to vote or not. Voting is a privilege given to Americans, not a right, thus not requiring any single person to partake in an election they don't want to. If compulsory voting is enacted this can cause major problems for America in the future. If compulsory voting is used in elections for the U.S, the typical views of America would be skewed and the nation won't be viewed as a “Land of the Free.” The whole idea behind voting is to pick a suitable leader to govern the…

Words 588 - Pages 3

Compulsory Voting In The United States

Voting is truly one of the most important parts of citizens’ rights in that it allows people to choose who creates laws and rules for them to follow and live by. Although this is one of the most important rights, it is simply that; a right. Government should not require citizens to use their voting rights to pick a political leader or any other important matter that would require a vote if a citizen does not wish to vote. I believe Compulsory voting should not be enforced in any nation because this…

Words 1310 - Pages 6

Compulsory Voting In The United States

election day, voters have two choices: go to the polls and cast their vote or stay away and let others decide.In some countries, that choice is already made: go to the polls or face serious consequences. A compulsory voting law would require them to cast and informed vote. A compulsory voting law would be unconstitutional and bad for the electoral process. The Romans established a form of government, a republic, that was copied by countries for centuries. In fact, the government of the United States…

Words 435 - Pages 2

Persuasive Essay On Compulsory Voting

364178 Compulsory voting We can’t argue our voices aren’t being heard when we pass opportunities to demonstrate it, though there are many reasons compulsory voting is a controversial topic, it is very necessary eligible voters take the opportunity and vote. Often many Americans that don’t vote, experience anger when a president they didn’t want was elected, but in reality the only person they should be mad at is themselves for not taking the time to vote. When we look at statistics in the following…

Words 478 - Pages 2

Why Is Compulsory Voting Unconstitutional

as most of africa like in argentina they enforce compulsory voting. In the united states it would be unconstitutional to force us to vote, but if we did do compulsory voting we can turn in a blank ballot. With the compulsory voting we would have more people voting, but there would be more random votes. Compulsory voting would be unconstitutional and would hurt our elections. We need to stay with the option to vote. If we went to compulsory voting there would be more uneducated voters to mess things…

Words 550 - Pages 3

Compulsory Voting In The United States

Compulsory voting in the countries around the world is a controversial topic as it raises a question how a democratic nation will be with or without compulsory voting. I agree with the notion of compulsory voting. Firstly, democracy means the colossal number of people vote to appropriate parties. Further, from each party, a leader get selected this leader then votes for another leader who is appropriate for President's position. Compulsory voting is the right of every individual to elect the person…

Words 290 - Pages 2

Compulsory Voting: Mandatory Failure

17 September 2012 Compulsory Voting, Mandatory Failure Have you ever been forced to do something you didn’t want to do, so you didn’t put much thought or effort in to it; therefore your outcome wasn’t what was expected. The Americans included in today’s generation value politics less and less as the year goes on. By forcing the people to vote isn’t going to help our nation, it will just become a burden to those who have busy lives and the polls will end up unfair. Imagine as if your parents ask…

Words 573 - Pages 3

Voting Should Be Compulsory In America Essay

believe voting should be mandatory in America while others do not. Mandatory voting is not only essential to America but to other countries as well. Noah Berlatsky, author of “Why You Should Be Legally Required to Vote” says that in the past presidential election, only approximately 36.4 percent of Americans voted in the election. This means that less than half of the people in America voted. If this keeps happening, the voting rates will decrease and sooner or later the only people voting will be…

Words 989 - Pages 4

Why Compulsory Voting Enhance Democracy?

In Bart Engelen’s article, Why Compulsory Voting Can Enhance Democracy, he explains many problems with voter turnout and participation in democratic governments and compulsory voting can help enhance the values of a democracy. Compulsory voting is where voters are obligated to vote in elections and if not they are subject to fines or penalties. Personally, I do not agree with the idea of compulsory voting, but I think throughout the article Engelen makes good points about the political participation…

Words 491 - Pages 2

Monkey: Election and Compulsory Voting Cite Essay

Many arguments exist to prove or disprove the importance of compulsory voting. The arguments for compulsory voting state that there cannot be a fair election if groups of people fail to cast their ballots. For this reason, arguments in favor demand the enforcement of compulsory voting to ensure full participation for fair elections. The arguments against claim that forcing individuals to cast ballots against their will can lead to empty votes, or donkey votes. Both sides strive for acceptance, each…

Words 660 - Pages 3