MJ's little flock

[MaryJanet]

Compulsory voting does not ensure good decisions. Should you not also have compulsory education?

Before enforcing voting should there not be a quiz to prove you are an informed voter and have educated yourself on the complex issues or at the very least have an idea how it works? For example what retention of judges means? Or what that job is?

Or are you ok that people who have no idea what they are doing vote for the famous person whom they have seen on TV?

How do you have enough poll workers to process all these new voters? Do you make that mandatory service and draft people like you do for a jury?

As someone who was in charge of voting here for over 20 years I have a slew of opinions on this and the basic capabilities of the voter. I almost did not respond to you on this because I feel this is a rabbit hole we can go down on a chicken forum but I'm a little cranky this morning so here it is.

I was surprised when you decided to be adversarial on the topic, especially when you don't have any first hand experience of the compulsory education system in Australia nor of its democratic processes.

 

[Ribh]

It's not laid on by the electoral commission, but by the people who work at the polling place when there isn't an election on. No one obliges them to put on a bbq, they self-organise it. Perhaps the person who usually organises the BBQ was sick this year? Perhaps they retired? Perhaps they moved?

Whatever happened at the polling place I attended, the democracy sausage tracker shows there were lots of snacking voters and funds raised by polling places. Polling places are schools, churches, community centres, anything walking distance within suburbs. I don't know what rural people do- postal votes maybe. My brother voted early on Tuesday in a community library because he had to work yesterday.

Yep. I took advantage of early voting. So glad we did as voting day was absolutely miserable up here.

 

[MaryJanet]

I can respond to this too because if it wasn't compulosary I wouldn't vote. I think they're all a bunch of crooks & we definitly shouldn't be paying them to perform a public service. That being said, when a section of your people don't, aren't, can't vote it is non~representative government. That's been women & indigenious peoples usually but also the handicapped. Secondly this is one thing the education system is supposed to address. In my case my school actually did. Most people are aware of the issues & are smart voters here. How do I know? This election there was a massive swing away from the 2 major parties & we are looking @ representation from a 3rd party & lots of independents. People voted for the issues that mattered most to them & not along party lines. Thirdly the ballot slips are as simple as they can make them so it's not that hard for most people to vote as they see fit and lastly, if you really object, you donkey vote. Or you can abstain & pay the fine. It is a very fair system & no~one can complain along the lines of I didn't get a say because everyone does get a say, one way or another.

Need to add, the booth workers are paid. Quite well by all accounts. I've known a few people do it for the extra cash.

You don't have to vote.

Just fold up the slips and put them in blank.

 

[Ribh]

You don't have to vote.

Just fold up the slips and put them in blank.

I thought I said that...more or less. It's a donkey vote. And I don't do it because it rather defeats the purpose.

 

[MaryJanet]

I thought I said that...more or less. It's a donkey vote. And I don't do it because it rather defeats the purpose.

Sorry if I missed it. I was responding to your opener.

 

[MaryJanet]

Yep. I took advantage of early voting. So glad we did as voting day was absolutely miserable up here.

Do you happen to know how rural folks vote? Do they put in postal votes?

 

[MaryJanet]

I can respond to this too because if it wasn't compulosary I wouldn't vote. I think they're all a bunch of crooks & we definitly shouldn't be paying them to perform a public service. That being said, when a section of your people don't, aren't, can't vote it is non~representative government. That's been women & indigenious peoples usually but also the handicapped. Secondly this is one thing the education system is supposed to address. In my case my school actually did. Most people are aware of the issues & are smart voters here. How do I know? This election there was a massive swing away from the 2 major parties & we are looking @ representation from a 3rd party & lots of independents. People voted for the issues that mattered most to them & not along party lines. Thirdly the ballot slips are as simple as they can make them so it's not that hard for most people to vote as they see fit and lastly, if you really object, you donkey vote. Or you can abstain & pay the fine. It is a very fair system & no~one can complain along the lines of I didn't get a say because everyone does get a say, one way or another.

Need to add, the booth workers are paid. Quite well by all accounts. I've known a few people do it for the extra cash.

I have to say, what an interesting outcome for the major parties! I fully expected to wake up to an ALP government, but no! Still short of seats! And so many votes following to the third options. ALP will be negotiating it arse off in the coming years and tempering their policy commitments with input from indies - good!

 

[MaryJanet]

On reflection, I think what we're seeing in this democracy debate is cultural clash. Bob's first hand experiences in the US are bound to be very different from those of election officials in Australia. Even the simplest of thoughts that so many US voters would be armed sheds a very different light. There would be loads of other sociocultural factors playing out, huge and tiny.

 

[LozzyR]

Me too. Almost everyone gets a say.

I would like to see the voting age lowered to 12. I don't see why young adults should be excluded from their democracy. After all, they're the ones who must live the longest under any policy changes.

I think it should be set up so that say, a determined age-range under 18 can vote if they want to and then when they reach 18, it becomes compulsory. I also agree it’s good that it’s compulsory, so that the wrong people don’t get in due to people’s apathy. I took a studied approach this year to who was running and what their policies were, and thanks to what MJ said about first preferences getting money from the Electoral Commission, I put my preferred minor party first and went down the list from there.

 

[MaryJanet]

I think it should be set up so that say, a determined age-range under 18 can vote if they want to and then when they reach 18, it becomes compulsory. I also agree it’s good that it’s compulsory, so that the wrong people don’t get in due to people’s apathy. I took a studied approach this year to who was running and what their policies were, and thanks to what MJ said about first preferences getting money from the Electoral Commission, I put my preferred minor party first and went down the list from there.

I don't care who you voted for but I genuinely feel proud that you voted according to your own preferences

And I love the idea of optional voting for under 18s. I thought 12 was a good starting age maybe 15 is better. Either way, it's a small proportion of the franchise but not so small the parties would ignore it when margins are increasingly tight.