Is Compulsory Voting The Remedy To Low Voter Turnout

• published: 13 Feb 2015
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In the November midterm voter turnout in New Mexico and Texas was just below the national average of less than 37 percent; the lowest it’s been in the U.S in 72 years. It’s led many analysts to question the U.S. political system’s capacity to represent its people. The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance ranks the U.S. 120th for voter turnout internationally. The countries at the top of the list like Belgium, Singapore and Australia which is number 1, all have compulsory voting policies. At this year’s Dona Ana County school board elections less than three percent of registered voters cast a ballot. Dona Ana County Deputy Clerk Scott Krahling says the lower the turnout the less integrity an election has. "We have a democratic system and in order for that system to work –the way that it should people need to show up and vote people need to be engaged citizens” he says Krahling acknowledges that New Mexico school board elections inherently have lower turnout because they’re scheduled outside of the normal election cycles. But even the 2014 November turnout of about one in three New Mexico voters was alarmingly lower than years before. “Every election whether it is a general election or a school board, we get phone calls that say, "You all didn’t do enough to tell people that there was an election happening" and one of my standard responses is well we bought advertising we did this we did that and the response is you should be doing more" he says But in my home country Australia voter turnout, isn’t an issue. In Australia and most nations with the top voter turnout rates voting is more than a citizen’s duty it’s an obligation, a legal obligation. In the last Australian election voters showed up to the polls at a rate of 93 percent. Krahling says the Bureau of Elections does everything in its budget and power to get Dona Ana County voters to the polls from public events like election fest to Spanish language outreach. “High voter turnout increases the integrity of an elections absolutely” he says As an Australian citizen overseas I myself got a fine for failing to vote or file an absentee ballot in a recent local election. But it’s a fine I am happy to pay in the name of a functioning democracy and a functioning country. Because the positive effects of compulsory voting go much further than broader political representation and higher turnout compulsory voting can ease polarization and even break political gridlock. Christy French is the Dona Ana Democratic Party Chair. French says voters tend to be more indifferent to elections that are seen to be less consequential like midterms. She says it’s even more difficult to get Democrats to the polls as opposed to Republicans who typically turnout in larger numbers. “Unless it is something that is really, really important to them or they really feel strongly about, unfortunately the voter public has proved to be pretty apathetic about voting and about what their vote means.” she says A 2014 Pew Research Center nationwide survey shows that political divisions are actually the greatest among the most politically engaged and active voters. Meaning that this choosy occasional approach to voting can only exacerbate partisan politics and polarization. But when voting is compulsory, people don’t just vote when they are fired up about hot button issues like abortion, gun rights, legalizing marijuana or raising the minimum wage, they are voting in every single election. And that can have a moderating affect on policy. Dona Ana County Deputy Clerk Scott Krahling says compulsory voting could resolve a lot of the issues related to low voter turnout but he’s not sure it could be implemented in the U.S. “There are a lot of people that are automatically skeptical of any sort of mandate that come from the government and that’s the challenge it is not necessarily that it is much different from being on a jury or buying healthcare its that anytime the government says you have to do something there is a lot of people out there that automatically don’t want that to happen” he says He says there are a lot of reforms that could more easily be implemented to improve voter turnout like consolidating elections, allowing mailed ballots and allowing voters to register right up until election day. States with rates of midterm voter turnout above 50% like Maine, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Oregon all allow voters to register on Election Day or receive ballots in mail.