Selecting “none of the above” is not speaking.
No one would be obligated to vote for a candidate, just to show up.
I agree that if it were to pass, it would probably be struck down. But it’s an interesting thought experiment.
zantax
105
Sure it is, it communicates to anyone who may see it the fact that you did not wish to vote for anyone on the ballot. Written communication, speech.
I think that’s a tenuous argument.
zantax
107
I don’t know what to tell you.
from What Does Free Speech Mean? | United States Courts
Freedom of speech includes the right:
Not to speak (specifically, the right not to salute the flag).
West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943).
Not the least bit tenuous, long established precedent.,
I was going to ask exactly that.
I’m familiar with the precedent. I’m just saying I don’t think your argument works.
Think about it like jury duty. You just have to show up.
Mandatory voting is like sentencing a person who attempts suicide to death.
Samm
111
The only thing worse than a low voter turnout is a high turnout of uninformed apathetic voters. Only in California would anyone think that this will improve things when the choices on the ballot remain the same.
2 Likes
I would argue that as classes, people who vote and people who never vote are probably pretty equivalent when it comes to being “uninformed”.
Samm
114
Could be, but regardless, as far as I’m concerned the best voter turnout is one … me. 
And the leaders are so corrupt they can’t afford to take their cut of the state’s finances and house the homeless they encourage to illegally immigrate into their cities.
WuWei
117
Sounded like virtue signaling to me.
Or maybe it was simply respect for your service.
This is where I got that from…
“The continent is part of a small minority of just 23 countries with mandatory voting laws. Only 10 of those enforce them.”
What does that sound like to you? Correct me if I’m wrong.
They don’t respect our military there in Germany…I have paid for things for men and women in Uniform, simply out of respect. Why is that so funny?
@Toll_Collector Jason Kent appears to be associated Menzies House. It claims to be non-aligned to the Liberal Party of Australia. However, the fact that it is called Menzies House refutes that claim.
The article is from 2013 and is not relevant to today. A couple of years ago we had a plebiscite on gay marriage. A very significant number of younger votes enrolled to allow then to vote in the affirmative in that plebiscite.
Whilst it is said we have compulsory voting that is shorthand for the actual reality which is we have compulsory attendance rather than compulsory voting. There is absolutely no requirement to actually vote and in fact it would be impossible to police as no-one sees your ballot paper before it is put into the appropriate receptacle.
Informal votes are a result of a number of reasons including a deliberate action by the person filling in the ballot paper such as leaving the ballot paper blank, writing a message etc. There is also a percentage that it is an inadvertent mistake by the person filling in the ballot paper.
I am not aware of any person being gaoled for not voting.
There has been a push by certain politicians and supporters from the right of centre to abolish “compulsory voting” because it would favour the Liberal Party and disadvantage the Labor Party. I don’t believe that there would be sufficient support in the appropriate house of parliament to pass such legislation.
As I have never not voted I can’t speak from personal experience. However, my understanding is that a letter is sent to people whose name have not been crossed off for a reason for not attending a polling place. This letter is sent by the Australian Electoral Commission or state equivalent. If the person does not have a legitimate reason then they are fined.
For background our elections are held on Saturdays (8am to 6pm) and each electorate in a Federal election would have 40+ polling places. We also have postal votes and early voting alternatives if one can’t attend a polling place on the day of the election (e.g work or religious reason etc.). We also have polling places in our major hospitals for those who are in hospital at the time of the election). I have enclosed a link as an example of one our country electorates (Durack) and the number of polling places. Durack electorate covers a significant percentage of Western Australia and is larger in area than Alaska.
