Should Voting be mandatory?

MartyMcFly84

I'm not sure if there is a direct link between the mode of voting and the actual turn out. I'd be more inclined to think that it is to do with some form of apathy or a reduction in civic responsibility.

I would still argue that the solution is not to implement systems which lack transparency just so people who aren't engaged can spend 5 seconds every 5 years paying attention to politics.

Do you think there should be changes to the current voting system?

AndrewJRenko

MartyMcFly84 wrote: »

It's fairly well evidenced with declining voter turn out trends, and the existing process not changing in line with the changing lifestyles and pace of modern Ireland.

Not really

https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2018/1019/1005247-voter-turnout-elections-ireland/

Tell me how

MartyMcFly84 wrote: »

Do you think there should be changes to the current voting system?

I'm not so sure. I wouldn't be saying there needs to be change just for the sake of it.

I mentioned previously on this thread about getting more people involved. Maybe a form of mandatory voting (where people can still actively select to decline all candidates) where if people don't vote in x number of elections over some period or face losing their right to automatic right to vote (which they can reapply for) or pay a small fine if they have not flagged that they would not be able to vote might encourage people to get involved.

I'm not saying I definitively think one of the above should happen, but I do think a healthy democracy would have turn out in the region of at least 70% fairly consistently and encouraging this is a worthwhile conversation.

MartyMcFly84

Not really

https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2018/1019/1005247-voter-turnout-elections-ireland/

If you look at the table in the article you are referencing many of the factors associated with lower turnout are prevalent in modern Ireland .

Here are a few associated with low voter turnout from the article.

• Younger population
• Urban based employment
• Distance from Polling stations
• Week day voting
• Local authority or private rented housing
• Single or Separated people (divorce referendum)

These factors are increasing in todays Ireland and I believe are lending itself to the lower voter turnout as mentioned in previous posts. If these factors are increasing it would make sense we make changes to the current system to adjust for them.

AndrewJRenko

MartyMcFly84 wrote: »

If you look at the table in the article you are referencing many of the factors associated with lower turnout are prevalent in modern Ireland .

Here are a few associated with low voter turnout from the article.

• Younger population
• Urban based employment
• Distance from Polling stations
• Week day voting
• Local authority or private rented housing
• Single or Separated people (divorce referendum)

These factors are increasing in todays Ireland and I believe are lending itself to the lower voter turnout as mentioned in previous posts. If these factors are increasing it would make sense we make changes to the current system to adjust for them.

Sure, they're important issues - but it's a big leap to suggest that new voting systems are the solution here. Surely we should be addressing the underlying problems, not the symptoms?

Gazzmonkey

MartyMcFly84 wrote: »

The Nice Treaty I imagine is being referred to

Yes true, it happened there, but I was thinking of the more recent Lisbon treaty. So they done it to us more then once.

MartyMcFly84

Sure, they're important issues - but it's a big leap to suggest that new voting systems are the solution here. Surely we should be addressing the underlying problems, not the symptoms?

Certainly some of those issues like moving the Vote day to a Weekend would be a quick and relatively simple fix.

The other factors and trends which are symptomatic of low voter turn out are much more complex and need long term strategies, they are more likely to become the norm instead of the trend being reversed.

My suggestions of a new voting system was an idea for a solution that could be implemented in the short and medium term. As opposed to trying shift modern demographic trends which would be far more complex and multi-variant .

Nobelium

L1011 wrote: »

Turnout is understated due to how many people are on the register multiple times. Quite significantly in areas with larger student populations and more rental properties.

I re-registered in 2015, I'm still on the register twice in the same town.

This is a massive problem, the Irish register of electors is not fit for purpose. Every year I see people who have been dead for years still on the register, and polling cards are issued for them. Same with students etc.

As SF say on election day . .vote early. . and vote often.

Tell me how

Nobelium wrote: »

This is a massive problem, the Irish register of electors is not fit for purpose. Every year I see people who have been dead for years still on the register, and polling cards are issued for them. Same with students etc.

As SF say on election day . .vote early. . and vote often.

Is this not an old wives tale in todays day and age. It is hard enough to get people to vote once, I'm not sure how many would be motivated to vote twice or more apart from those with skin in the game so to speak but I imagine those are relatively small in number.

It is perplexing though that something as simple as an electoral register cannot be managed appropriately in 2019.

Gavin Reilly would make a far stab at it with a few open-doc spreadsheets.
Or, as someone else mentioned, if it was shifted to use SSN as the primary identifier then it would have to be much better.

L1011

FF used to run free buses from Dublin to the west to enable people to vote for them twice - officially for those registered just at home of course!

My two cards were for totally different polling stations - different buildings not just boxes - if I was so inclined - suspect its still happening to some extent.

AndrewJRenko

MartyMcFly84 wrote: »

Certainly some of those issues like moving the Vote day to a Weekend would be a quick and relatively simple fix.

The other factors and trends which are symptomatic of low voter turn out are much more complex and need long term strategies, they are more likely to become the norm instead of the trend being reversed.

My suggestions of a new voting system was an idea for a solution that could be implemented in the short and medium term. As opposed to trying shift modern demographic trends which would be far more complex and multi-variant .

To me, it would be like solving your obesity problem by buying bigger trousers. Focusing on the 10 minutes of voting every five years, spending a pile of money and distracting the public, politicians, policy makers for a couple of years would be an awful distraction.



And that's before we even think about the feasibility of a technical solution - which isn't feasible to the best of my knowledge.

istooptoconcur

mandatory voting should, in my view, form parcel of a general drive to encourage civility across the board in secondary level schooling. it is, perhaps, no longer satisfactory to give citizens Athenian ruling class style schooling: the individual, should, in my view, start off in society with a grounding in civil responsibility, an understanding of difference in a globalized age and and a certain degree of fluency when it comes to pro-social behaviour. Mandatory voting not only encourages civil responsibility, it actively grafts the citizen to their duty to uphold democracy, civil liberty and a freedom from tyranny: an effect that justifies the means (in this case), and which should balance out any perceived loss of liberty that the word 'mandatory' might conjure in the minds of some.