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onetwothree

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Posts posted by onetwothree


  1. We have compulsory voting here. Last election, we had a 93% turnout and only 5.91% informal votes ballots. That isn't to say that 6% of people are politically apathetic because our voting system is much more complicated than putting a tick in one box so I'd guess about 1 or 2 percent of informal votes cast are genuine votes but not filled in correctly. 

    Whether people make a conscious decision to spoil or leave their ballot blank is another story in itself and since this debate is strictly about compulsory voting, I'll leave it at that.

    By making voting compulsory, you get a very wide range of people voicing their opinions and it better reflects the will of the people. In a voluntary system, because people don't need vote, you'll only be getting the views of a minority of the people which is exacerbated if the vote is being run via first-past-the-post. You can potentially end up with a radical party in power like in Germany in 1933.

    Before women were given the right to vote, politicians needed only to satisfy the desires of the people who were actually voting, generally wealthy landowners. Many policies naturally favoured the rich, old men who probably only accounted for maybe 15% of the population and the rest were shafted.

    Mildly interesting and slightly related: You can win a US presidential election with only 11 votes total.

  2. Exactly. My sister was like you last year, politically apathetic and didn't vote last election despite it being compulsory. Last night, our English Prime Minister announced budget cuts to education and the end of universal healthcare and she was all up in arms about it. Since she didn't vote, I told her to shut it.

  3. I don't get why people choose not to vote. People are spilling their blood around the world for a chance to voice their views and you take this fundamental democratic right for granted. You pay taxes, right? And by not voting, you're letting some nutter across the country dictate where your money goes. And you have no right to complain about the government if you don't like what they're doing. By voting I can complain about that religious nutter that's dipped his hand into my pocket last night. You can have him back since he was born there.

  4. Annoying telemarketer: "Sir, you're entitled to a free trip to Cancun."
    Me: "Oh really, wow! But I'll have to pass, I'm not really one for Mexico."
    Annoying telemarketer: "But sir, when was your last vacation?"
    Me: "Last week."

    And I get hung up on.
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