How Australia demands that its citizens show up

A description of Australian compulsory voting

By Tracy Brystan, formerly of the Royal Australian Air Force

Comment on  Quora, 2015

 "Australia has compulsory voting, and it's not particularly controversial.

"The legal obligation can be fulfilled either by:

'submitting a postal vote, or:

"by turning up at a polling both and having your name marked off the electoral roll, and submitting a marked vote in the ballot box.

"There is no obligation for the vote to be valid. (Italics mine)

"When you submit a postal vote, it is in two envelopes. The outer one gets you marked off as having voted, irrespective of what's inside. Then the inner sealed envelope is passed to the team who tally the votes; the people who mark off names never see the votes of those people. So there may be nothing in the envelope, or a blank ballot, or a defaced ballot, or whatever.

"Likewise, nobody sees what's on the paper that you put in the ballot box, so it can be invalid, but not going to the voting booth and marking it may be sufficient to establish an offence, as it's a legal requirement to make some mark on the voting sheet. The vast majority of people just fill out their form and go and buy a sausage from the charity sausage sizzles that are inevitably held at polling booths. :)

"In Australia, the contributing factors supporting our "voting culture" are, in my view (in approximate order of relevance):

"Ensuring enfranchisement:

"Minorities are traditionally disenfranchised when voting isn't compulsory. People who are poor, unwell, uneducated, etc., are far less likely to vote. We're an egalitarian society and believe that "forcing" people to vote is a reasonable - if somewhat paternalistic - measure to ensure that all groups have a say in the running of our country.

"Preferential voting:

"We can't really 'waste' a vote in Australia, as we have a preferential voting scheme. In the lower house, the person with the fewest "1" votes gets eliminated, and then those votes are re-examined, and distributed to all the candidates those people marked as "2", and so on. (The upper house is more complicated, but you get the idea.) Everybody's vote goes to the person they find "least objectionable of the viable candidates".

"Ease of voting:

"If voting is not compulsory, there's no need for authorities and employers to make voting easy. Because it is compulsory, it's made very easy. Electoral authorities visit hospitals, aged care facilities, military bases, etc., and there are provisions for postal voting, and pre-poll voting. Voting is held on a Saturday to minimise difficulties with getting away from work. The "right" not to vote

"Aussies really don't have a "rights" culture. We don't have a bill of rights, and are far more likely to talk about our obligations than our rights. Whilst there are some people who resent compulsory voting, most of them believe their philosophical disagreement is outweighed by the benefit of including minorities, and only a very tiny minority (I'd say << 10%) think compulsory voting should be abolished. We're a pragmatic people, and don't consider that taking 5 minutes out of our lives every 3 years is a very big imposition.

"For those who don't want to support "the system" or any particular party, they get reminded that they don't have to cast a valid vote, and there's little sympathy, really.

"To get to the heart of the question: compelling people to do something that they don't want to do is arguably unethical. But so is disenfranchising minorities.

"The only issue, then, is which is the "lesser of two evils".

"Australia has decided that it's more important for minorities to participate, than to give people the freedom not to have to vote. I am completely comfortable with my country's position, and so are the vast majority of Australians."

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Posted by Jennifer A. Nolan