everybody SHOULD be made to vote

[Jelliedeels]

EU effects us all.

I think everyone should be made to vote that is over 18 years of age.

I'm sure the "I don't know people" still moan at politics and the country .

AIBU

[bearleftmonkeyright]

I'm with you on this op. Yanbu.

[Idontknowwhoiam]

Agree... people who think it doesn't affect them are ignorant!

[Pseudonym99]

You cannot force people to vote. They would just spoil the paper or be otherwise disruptive. If they are not interested, they would not have done any research into the choice anyway.

[lavenderdoilly]

Agree. Even if you spoil your ballot paper every time. Melodrama alert - people died so you could do it. You owe them.

[OurBlanche]

MMMMmmmm!

You might need to check the meaning if democracy... and then go and look up people like Mugabe, any Korean or Chinese president, Putin, Castro and many, many more!

A purportedly benevolent dictatorship still denies people freedom of choice!

Oh, and if poeple still don't now how to vote it is mainly down to the politicians of all parties who, after decades of leaving this on the back burner, have suddenly rushed it to the fore and have no better arguement than "Cos we think so..."

So yes, YABU.

[NickyEds]

YABU. I have a couple of friends who are just not interested in politics. They aren't going to go back and read the Lisbon treaty or the details of the deal hashed out by Cameron. At best they would be getting their information from the papers, at worst they would simply pick a box or spoil their ballots. Turnout numbers are also significant in and of themselves.

[VulcanWoman]

Agree, even if they just spoil it.

[SouthWesterlyWinds]

Doesn't Australia make it a legal requirement to vote? Do they get a lot of spoiled ballots over there?

[NickyEds]

People who think it doesn't affect them are ignorant!

So what? Should ignorance be a crime then? How about apathy? Disinterest? People should always be at liberty to opt out of deciding.

[OurBlanche]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23810381

Quite an interesting discussion about Australia's voting stance.

[Babyroobs]

I have read a lot / tried to educate myself on the EU issue but still do not know which way to vote. It is such an important issue but I'm finding it very hard to make a decision.

[VulcanWoman]

A legal requirement in Australia.

[InternationalHouseofToast]

Australia do this, but they also have a "none of the above" option on the ballot paper so people can say that the parties are not offering them anything they can vote for.

I think we need that option before you can look at mandatory voting.

[frenchielala]

I'm a member of a political party and involved in politics but I am so disengaged in the EU referendum, not because I don't think it would effect me but because I just don't believe the politicians and have any confidence that they know what they are talking about. It has been scaremongering from either side with very few solid facts presented.

I don't like the idea of not voting but at this moment in time I'm seriously considering spoiling my ballot paper.

[Jelliedeels]

However everyone seems to have opinions on things that affect them, even if they don't realise it's all politics,

E,g high street shopping, renting, buying houses, cars, holidays

It affects them

[MilkTwoSugarsThanks]

Not sure I'd want my future decided by a bunch of people who have no interest, don't want to be there, and likely to slam a cross in any box without even bothering to look at it.

[NickyEds]

It affects them

Again, so what? If iy affects them but they choose not to vote then that's surely up to them isn't it?

I have voted in every election I've ever been entitled to vote in. In my area the tory mp gets a massive majority and I don't vote tory. I can see why some people don't bother.

[HerRoyalNotness]

This article says Australian election in 2010 had about 6% spoiled ballots.

www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-23810381

Also talks about voting turnout at 94% maybe overestimated so. Elsewhere I found info about donkey votes which are votes for eg that are numbered 1-6 top to bottom with little thought to who they're voting for which are counted and can be about 2% of the total votes.

I'm sure when I lived in Oz the fines were higher $200-300 for not voting. Seems they're only $20 now, I don't think that's much of a deterrent to ensure voters show up.

[OurBlanche]

Absolutely, frenchie

The absurd twaddle all parties have come out with is utterly ridiculous and does nothing for their ratings or the better understanding of the wider public.

If one politician could stand in front of a camera and say "if A then B, however C would also mean C, therefore XYZ" then maybe more peole would be interested.

But if Dave thinks his joshing remarks about not being able to get my car cleaned made me value his intelligence, he was very wide of the mark.

ALL comments regarding immigration are equally ludicrous. Should ONE politician give some balanced information, without all the weird "I'm not racist but" hyperbole, I might be persuaded.

If Gove would stop pretending to be a man with a judicious take on ANY matter (well, if he could just disappear) I may be able to re-engage with both sides of the argument.

As it is the paucity of real information, the heightened emotional content of many speeches and the downright lies being sold to us is most offputting. This is a truly sad, awful time in UK politics. We need to find some proper politicians, not career politicos.

I may spoil my ballot. I may make it into an aeroplane or a pretty flower...

[PreciousVagine]

YABU. Forcing people to vote wouldn't make them care. They'd just pick at random or something which is about as useful as them not voting at all if not more useless.

[RedToothBrush]

So what happens to people who don't vote?

Keeping in mind that those who don't vote may well have a reason they don't - as in language barriers, physical barriers and economic barriers - thus making them more vulnerable people in society.

Why would you want to criminalise them in a democracy?

This is not solving the problem.

Those who are disengaged in politics are disengaged for a reason. We should be doing more to engage them. Or acting together to do more to engage those who are ignoring discontent. People want solutions to problems not 'politics'

this is not peddling a shit load of lies and scaremongering like the EU campaigns are generating

[branofthemist]

Yabu. I would not want to see forced voting going on.

Melodrama alert - people died so you could do it. You owe them.

this always makes me laugh. People died so we had the choice to vote. It doesn't oblige anyone to do anything.

[squoosh]

YABU

You can't make people engage with politics by forcing them to vote.


It saddens me that some people aren't bothered about voting but if voting is our democratic right well then not voting should be too.

[MephistophelesApprentice]

I genuinely do not believe that democracy is a valid method of deciding national policy in a country this size and with such massive variations in wealth and education. As such, I will not be voting as I believe it would be participating in a system of control designed to prevent the establishment of a more just and effective system.

This is my truly held belief and not voting is my statement in support of that belief - forcing me to vote would be a crime against my conscience, when my belief and it's expression can cause no harm to any other individual. It would therefore be an unjust law.

[RedToothBrush]

We need to find some proper politicians, not career politicos.


We need someone like you to stand then. Genuinely.

The issue is that the system does not support families and in particular women to stand, because of the home / work life balance.

I know a few people who love politics and would like to stand but are put off by this problem simply because they ARE those type of people and are not prepared to put their career ahead of everything else.

I do know that there are some people at local in various parties who are doing it.