How Do You Feel When You Vote?

[rah]

You would think they would favor the left.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

That is my gut feeling too

 

[Manfred Belheim]

Powerless mostly.

 

[rah]

The republicans try to keep people from voting since they usually have a higher turnout.

 

[Commodore]

I wonder how election results in the US would change if we had compulsory voting.

I never liked the idea of compulsory voting. Goes against the idea that voting is a right in my opinion. A right is only a right if it is up to each individual how, or even if, they will exercise it. If the government is commanding me to vote, then voting is no longer my right, but rather just another way the government is imposing its authority and will upon me.

 

[Patine]

I never liked the idea of compulsory voting. Goes against the idea that voting is a right in my opinion. A right is only a right if it is up to each individual how, or even if, they will exercise it. If the government is commanding me to vote, then voting is no longer my right, but rather just another way the government is imposing its authority and will upon me.

And in North Korea, voting is mandatory and with harsh penalties to you, your family, and your co-workers for violating it - and you only get one candidate for each office anyways...

 

[Arwon]

I wonder how election results in the US would change if we had compulsory voting.

It would mostly be enforced to fine, harass and jail ethnic minorities, I'd assume.

Despite this, it would favour the Democrats in terms of vote shares.

 

[Patine]

It would mostly be enforced to fine, harass and jail ethnic minorities, I'd assume

How would you Australians have any idea about that?

 

[Arwon]

How would you Australians have any idea about that?

In terms of electoral administration and mechanics? Nope, not at all. Enforcement is like a 20 dollar fine that's pretty easy to beg your way out of.

Note that Australian compulsory voting is backed up and made work by:

• A Saturday election day, so people mostly don't have to leave work
• An independent Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) staffed by impartial public servants, whose charter is to make voting as easy and accessible as possible, since it's an obligation
• Enough staff and polling places that lines aren't generally a huge issue (generaly every suburb has a school or church polling place, and the biggest ones still only take about 3000 votes. The largest Australian polling place by turnout is actually the one at Australia House in London)
• Something like five different methods of voting based on timing and location. You can vote early in person via pre-poll, you can postal vote, then on the day you can vote outside your home district at any polling place in your state. You can also vote interstate at specific polling places equipped for that. So you don't need to cast your ballot at a specific polling place indicated by a special card like in the UK. There are also mobile Electoral Commission teams covering hospitals, prisons and remote indigenous communities.
• Provisional voting (for people who can't be found on the electoral roll) is the responsibility of the electoral commission to verify rather than the individual to confirm
• Increasingly, people are being automatically enrolled based on data matching things like Medicare and tax returns, so that makes things even smoother for marginally attached voters
• A form of ballot that feels like you're having a say between more than just two powerful parties (even though in practice it mostly comes back to that contest)

It wouldn't work just to slap a "you must vote" law over the top of the slapdash, inconsistent between states, often racially biased US electoral system, it would produce terrible effects. Compulsory voting only works when backed up by a supportive administrative setup.

And implementing most of the above arrangements would substantially increase turnout even without the force of compulsion. If there were a well-resourced, impartial, national electoral body enforcing a single enrollment system and ballot ruleset for the whole country, tasked with maximising enrollment and turnout, avoiding all voter suppression, making multiple convenient voting options available, and using a system that felt less zero-sum and pointless (ie no gerrymandering and FPTP), that would probably achieve more than making voting compulsory anyway.

 

[Zardnaar]

Basically how we do it here as well. Lots of voting booths, votes on Saturday, easy to mail in a vote if you have work.

Popular vote system also means your vote counts and whoever wins the election is seen as legitimate even if you ***** and moan about the results.

Coalition shenigans have clouded 2 elections though involving the same party. The biggest party here came close but fell short to a coalition of 3 parties.

They were a bit entitled IMHO, 2 of those 3 parties won't work with them and they tried to destroy the third. Biggest party but Nigel no mates.

 

[Arwon]

Also, when I vote in Territory elections it's novel because we have a touch screen/electronic voting option which is fun.

 

[Patine]

Also, when I vote in Territory elections it's novel because we have a touch screen/electronic voting option which is fun.

Those are the ones the Russians hack...

 

[Arwon]

It's an open source linux system run on a local server in each polling place and not connected to the internet, fully scrutinised by officials and party representatives. Best practice for this.

That said, it's probably only useful because of the complex ballot - we randomise the order of names in our ballots within each party group, so they have to print dozens of differently ordered forms. Much easier to do that electronically. Also helps ensure you keep your numbers straight (since it's a multi member preferential system there's a lot of boxes to number).

 

[Commodore]

It's an open source linux system run on a local server in each polling place and not connected to the internet, fully scrutinised by officials and party representatives. Best practice for this

Wouldn't the best practice be to not have it on a server at all and just have each machine store their own results, print them out and then add them up? That way you know the machines are truly hack-proof.

 

[Arwon]

Wouldn't the best practice be to not have it on a server at all and just have each machine store their own results, print them out and then add them up? That way you know the machines are truly hack-proof.

I'm sure that could be done, but they add ballots on election night by entering them electronically at some point anyway, so it's really just a short cut to that point. Any irregularities are going to be noted by party scrutineers comparing paper and electronic booths and vote shares and the like, and there's an election audit by the ACT Audit Office afterwards.

Notably, the audit in 2016 suggested they should go more widely than the current 6 of 94 polling places having an electronic option.

 

[Lohrenswald]

I've talked about this previously but

first time I voted was in 2013, that time the centre-left coallition got replaced by a right-wing one, and none of the people I voted for got a mandate, so not only didn't I get any representation but thing went to what I felt was the worst outcome possible, and that happened all the way until past september where I think one of the people I voted for got a mandate at the county thing but that's just because of merging counties and is like a lot less important than municipal and national results

so all that's made me pretty cynical. I don't really care much to read up on political news since 2013 since I expect the worst things to happen, but when I once in a blue moon check out things it turns out that yes I was right, they do the worst things

as for the actual act of voting it's a bit whatever. The closest locale is the school I went to until I was like 12 and it's a couple hundred meters away or so. It does however kinda suck that they always put election day on a monday

 

[Patine]

I've talked about this previously but

first time I voted was in 2013, that time the centre-left coallition got replaced by a right-wing one, and none of the people I voted for got a mandate, so not only didn't I get any representation but thing went to what I felt was the worst outcome possible, and that happened all the way until past september where I think one of the people I voted for got a mandate at the county thing but that's just because of merging counties and is like a lot less important than municipal and national results

so all that's made me pretty cynical. I don't really care much to read up on political news since 2013 since I expect the worst things to happen, but when I once in a blue moon check out things it turns out that yes I was right, they do the worst things

as for the actual act of voting it's a bit whatever. The closest locale is the school I went to until I was like 12 and it's a couple hundred meters away or so. It does however kinda suck that they always put election day on a monday

They must have really unstable politics with a multi-party system of anonymous, interchangeable parties in "The End," judging by the narration...

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Another reason I enjoy voting a lot more in California as opposed to other states I've voted is that here, mail-in ballots are readily available. When you register to vote, you can tell them you want to vote by mail and then ballots just show up about a month ahead of voting without having to be requested. Actually, often before the ballots show up, they send information packets listing all of the ballot initiatives, their projected impacts (by impartial parties) and pro- and con- arguments by supporters and contractors. We also get a bio of many of the election candidates and a sample ballot to practice on. Everything is pretty easy peasy and while you do have to put a stamp on the return ballot, I've been told that the post office will deliver ballots without stamps but don't advertise this fact. Not sure if it's true but one of my coworkers forgot to put a stamp on hers and went to the post office to see if there was anything she could do about it and that's what they allegedly told her.

 

[Lohrenswald]

They must have really unstable politics with a multi-party system of anonymous, interchangeable parties in "The End," judging by the narration...

I mean if you really want the names:
until 2013 there was a coallition of the worker's party, socialistic left party and the center party, and after we've had right, the progress party, christian people's party and left
All along I've been voting red
(parties right, left and red don't have the word "party" in their names)

as for stability it's as stable as any "western democracy" I guess

 

[Patine]

I mean if you really want the names:
until 2013 there was a coallition of the worker's party, socialistic left party and the center party, and after we've had right, the progress party, christian people's party and left
All along I've been voting red
(parties right, left and red don't have the word "party" in their names)

as for stability it's as stable as any "western democracy" I guess

Another problem is, I'm unfamiliar with what country you're from. That adds to the confusing element. Despite the style of animation in your avatar picture, and the script at the bottom, it doesn't sound at all like Japanese Party Politics - I have a notable amount of familiarity with their political scene.