Should America Implement Compulsory Voting?
Compulsory voting is the mandatory requirement implemented in around twenty or more countries in which all eligible members of the country are obligated to register to vote in elections, or otherwise cast a ballot for local, regional, and national elections. Of the countries that require its citizens to abide by these laws — such as Australia, Argentina, Belgium, and Chile — all citizens are required to cast a vote for nearly all major elections in the country. If an eligible voter does not cast a vote on Election Day, they may be subject to various fines or penalties. Would such a practice be of benefit in the United States?
Some United States citizens may argue that the country could benefit from a compulsory requirement to vote, going based off of the presumption that suggests that there would be a greater voter turnout should such a system be implemented. This logic aligns with the fact that voter turnout is lower in the United States than in most developed countries.
Political parties spend a great amount of money every election to convince people to vote, therefore compulsory voting would waste less money in the process and that money could go towards other necessities for the general population. There are countless of seemingly positive aspects towards compulsory voting, which shall be later detailed.
As for my personal stance: I do not see compulsory voting as a valid means of getting more people to vote. In fact, it is of my belief that it might do more harm than good, and there are a lot of barriers and systematic changes that need to be addressed before we can even consider implementing compulsory voting in our country.
Some may argue that such a mandate would violate our individual rights as citizens. As we live in a “free country”, we should have the right to opt-out of participating in voting as we see fit. This is especially true as a good majority of people do not vote in the first place because of several different, yet equally valid, reasons.
The first reason being that the candidates we are presented with every election cycle tend not to have the interests of the average person in mind. Think of every election cycle we have endured since the time you were young. One candidate wins and becomes president for the next 4–8 years, and these candidates seem to be so out of touch with reality when it comes to the needs and wants of the average person (or, alternatively, they tend to be downright sociopathic and simply do not care as they are in the highest position of power one could be in). Then, when a candidate does something extremely problematic (think of how many presidents we have had that had some sort of scandal come to light), the opposing side of the electoral party points the finger at the other, blaming them for whom they voted for. Or perhaps a president has implemented or proposed a new law that would almost always put minorities and those who are already at a disadvantage through even more struggles in life.
Next, other than the fact that Americans tend to lack enthusiasm regarding the candidates we are presented with every election cycle, there is also the fact that non-voters tend to already be at a disadvantage as aforementioned. Those who do not vote tend not to do so for very valid reasons, rather than just because they don’t want to. People who do not vote tend to have lower incomes, to have lower levels of education, to be young, and they often say that they don’t identify with any political party at all.
There are also a lot of barriers in place for those who are at a disadvantage and thus preventing them from voting. Some examples include school, work, home life, etc., while some barriers are systematic in nature. Some people cannot vote due to long-term disabilities. Meanwhile, Hispanic and black voters also face unique challenges to vote because there tend to be fewer voting places in their neighborhoods, or they couldn’t find the time off from work to go vote.
A potential solution to this problem would be to make mail-in voting accessible for those who face the challenges mentioned above, which happen to be a good majority of non-voters. Another solution would be to make Election Day a national holiday to allow for more people to cast their votes without the hassle of trying to find time off from work or school. There could be seemingly endless alternatives to compulsory voting, and it would be unjust and unfair to the citizens of this country who do not have the luxury of voting at all due to any one reason.
