Argumentative Essay: Australia's Voting System

Non-voters are often generalized as lazy or selfish, but it viable that it is in their own self-interest not to vote. Forcing someone to betray their own self-interest it strictly undemocratic. A non-vote can mean apathy, but it can also mean disagreement or contentment with all candidates. Even if a compulsory system could be considered constitutional, how would the finer point be determined? To what extend will the United States go to enforce it? Furthermore, to what degree of punishment does the citizen have to pay if they neglect the “democratic duty” to cast a vote? Even further, how many strikes does that citizen get? Will the punishments continue to get worse as they continue to abstain from placing their vote? These are all crucial questions that would take
Additionally, Australia's parliamentary system is entirely dissimilar to America's. Australia has a proportional voting system, and their voting process is very complex. The voters there rank candidates by preference. Australia also has over two political parties representing themselves in its government. Also, Australia’s voters do not appear to be anymore politically educated than America’s voters. Attempting to compare America's voting system to Australia's voting system like trying to fit a triangle in a circular hole. What would happen to Australia if voting became voluntary again? In the Netherlands, where voting was compulsory between 1917 and 1971 and then became voluntary, the average turnout fell from 94.7 per cent to 81.4 per cent. If Australia was to enact a non-mandatory voting system, it would be expected to amount to about 1.5 million fewer votes during a national election. In the end, this is unlikely to make much a change in electoral results. However, it could shake up the political standards for the country. A more sensible alternative to compulsory voting would be to make voting more accessible. One possible way of doing this is to create a national holiday, or