compulsory voting essays

compulsory voting essays Compulsory voting (CV) is a system of laws and/or norms mandating that enfranchised citizens turn out to vote, often accompanied by (a) a system of compulsory voter registration and (b) penalties for non-compliance, usually fines or the denial of state-provided benefits. Cross-national studies find CV to be an effective mechanism for increasing turnout, by between seven to sixteen percentage points; within-country comparisons also generally find that CV boosts turnout. CV is commonly thought to advantage parties of the left (based on social-structural and demographic patterns of turnout in countries without CV), and hence shift public policy in that direction also. But these conjectures are difficult to verify, since other political and institutional variables intervene between voter turnout, election outcomes and policy outputs. It is often overlooked that fines and sanctions are just one aspect of CV: states employing CV usually reciprocate by reducing the costs of turnout for its citizens, via weekend voting, simple registration procedures, and the creation of a centralized, professional bureaucracy concerned with all aspects of election administration. ____________________________________________________ Assistant Professor and Victoria Schuck Faculty Scholar, Department of Political Science, Over twenty countries around the world have some form of compulsory voting, which requires citizens to register to vote and to go to their polling place or vote on the election day. With secret ballots it is not really possible to prove who has or has not voted so this process could be more accurately called compulsory turnout. One of the most well known compulsory voting systems is in Australia. All Australian citizens over 18 (except those of unsound mind or those convicted of serious crimes) must be registered to vote and show up at the poll on Election Day. Australians who do not vote are subject to fines although those w...