It does? As far as I know more than half the country doesn’t enforce that law.
Amazingly…both facts are true.
The income polarization is quite extreme.
I lived in Belgium for 4 years. As I recall they had mandatory voting and I never heard anybody complain about it.
North Korea has it to, haven’t really heard anyone complaining about it there as well.
5 Likes
If I lived there, I’d walk in proud and cast my vote as a write in for Cratic3947. You’d get my vote for every contest.
Seriously, this is as unconstitutional as it gets.
In America we have the right to choose what we do. The Government can’t tell me I have to vote. That is against the constitution. I don’t care what backward ass countries like Belgium does. They aren’t America.
1 Like
If people want to vote they should and it should be easy for them to vote.
That being said, I’ve always doubted the notion that merely more voting gives us better government. Get out the vote campaigns tout “It doesn’t matter who you vote for, just vote”. The problem is that it DOES matter who you vote for.
Voting by people who took the time to pay attention, pick a candidate and vote is valuable. (Even if they made different choices than mine.)
Random voting by an uninformed person walking up and marking a ballot just for the heck of it (or to avoid a fine) doesn’t help the process.
Voting by Interested people should be easy.
Encouraging people to become interested (earlier than voting day) and then to vote is a good thing.
Grabbing everyone and having them put an X on the ballot doesn’t make our democracy any better.
I lived in Belgium. They are not backwards. They are divided and so are we. I had good friends in the Flemish part of the country, where I lived and worked and where they spoke English fluently (and German and French). I had good friends on the Walloon part of the country, where they did not speak English very well. My girlfriend was Flemish, and hardly backwards. They require voting. I think that’s cool. But where do get off saying that they are backwards. I was there under a United States government Fulbright-Hayes postdoctoral scholarship. To Belgium and Luxembourg.
Tell me which countries are backwards compared to the United States. Defend you answer.
I know they aren’t. Sorry. I should have said sarcasm.
Jail time!
OK. Let me tell you a story. I was visiting local archaeological museums to study artifacts from the Middle Stone Age (my former specialty). I traveled to a small town in northern Belgium, Lommel, to visit their museum. I was the first American to visit their village since the Battle of the Bulge. Shortly after I arrived, I was invited to the mayor’s office, where at 10:00 am we share a Dutch Gin (oude genever). I was given a police escort around the town and lunch with the local administrators. By the time the day was over I hadn’t accomplished anything. I came back the next day to do my research.
I was given the Plate to the City where I conducted excavations near Brecht, Belgium. I can send a picture of my Plate to the City. I have never been a very good tourist. I have traveled to many west European countries, but mostly because of my work. I have a great respect for my friends abroad and for the countries they live in.
Let me tell you a story. When I was in the 82nd, we went to Germany. Me, my 1Sgt and an E-7 went in to a butcher shop in a ville to get some lunch. They had both been stationed in Germany. We were wearing red berets.
Got ready to pay and “No charge.”
I asked why and the 1Sgt said “They still remember the ass whippin’ we gave them in '45.”
Good times. ■■■■ them.
And that is relevant because?
I still prefer P. Diddy’s voting initiative.
I thought it was Story Time.
1 Like
Wrong answer. Try again.
Why do you get to tell one and I don’t?
Because my story is relevant.
Education is a Constitutional right, and we force children to attend school. I’m not surprised this is happening.
