Not casting a vote should be made a criminal offence

[palanca]

Turnout is always low, even in the Referendum. With postal votes and possibly online voting in the future, voting is straightforward. There certainly should be a further box for "none of the above" so I am not saying for one minute that people should be forced to choose one the options presented.
People have fought and died for the vote - let's make sure that it gets used.
Other countries do this including Australia, Cyprus, Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Singapore, Uruguay so it is not only North Korea!

If you think all the options are shit, then stand yourself.

So somebody who has not bothered to find out who to vote for suddenly pitches up at the ballot box because he has to and throws a cross down on whoever has a funny name? That's not great for democracy!

How about making it a criminal offence for politicians to mislead the public? Or make them accountable if they don't stick to manifestos without good reason? Or make them actually publish figures for their financial promises?

Maybe then more people would feel inclined to vote?

caroldecker I don't think I'd be great in government and I'm lucky to have an amazing local MP.
I'm all in favour of measures to improve the choices we have though. Maybe there be exciting things from the Women's Equality Party in the future.

Isn't there an old saying "be careful what you wish for, as you just might get it"?

Reckon that applies here. There's no guarantee that all those non-voters will vote the way you want them too, and you may find the result unpalatable.

DP has never bothered to vote in general elections, as our constituancy is overwhelmingly conservative so one more vote isn't ever going to change anything.

But the referendum was different. Each vote counted, so he went and voted.

Forcing people to vote isn't going to work while we still have the current voting system, as many people don't vote because they don't feel their vote will make any difference.

YABU. Voting should be a choice - I don't want to take away anyone's freedom not to vote. I also don't think those who are too apathetic to vote should be made to do so - there is nothing to stop them from picking at random, or choosing the candidate they think has the best name/hairstyle/whatever.

I have always voted, since I was old enough to do so, as a matter of principle - I think of what the suffragettes endured to secure our right to vote. It's important. The day voting is made compulsory, though, I'll be spoiling all my ballot papers. (I can do that. I'm in a very safe Labour seat so my vote makes no real difference anyway.) Because the only reason politicians would decide to do this would be to address very low turnout (a de facto 'none of the above' position) and therefore pretend to themselves that nothing was wrong and that the winning party had a true mandate for whatever they wanted to do.

Not everyone who doesn't vote is apathetic and disinterested. People have many reasons for not voting around illness, access etc. Some of the posts seem to imply that people who don't vote are lazy idiots sitting on the dole

In a free country people should be at liberty to not be interested in government and politics, and at liberty to leave the voting to people who are.