This picture, courtesy of our national broadcaster, somehow captures the essence of being Australian. Voting is mandatory for all adults, is always on a Saturday, and can be done on the way to the beach.
๐ณ๐ฑ
@freemo It's only $AUD20. Mandatory voting does have an upside: it means that everyone votes, not just the politically motivated at either end of the spectrum, and the consequence is that our governments are inevitably centrist, as they have to appeal to the middle (i.e. normal people) to get elected.
It's not all bad. :)
> It's only $AUD20.
Well at least the penalty isnt too crazy.
> Mandatory voting does have an upside: it means that everyone votes
That sounds very much like a down side, not an up side. I want a system that **discourages** people from voting unless they are well educated in politics, and feels they have a candidate that is preferable.
The **last** thing I want is votes that are nearly random because someone cant pick a side being weighted as much as people who are engaged and have researched enough to form an opinion.
> and the consequence is that our governments are inevitably centrist, as they have to appeal to the middle (i.e. normal people) to get elected.
I think this may work more in Australia because you dont have a two party system... Even if we had more centrists voting it wouldnt help in the USA because the two choices you have are always extremists.
Thing is, I can only see this working in a coalition govt if people actually vote at every level, its too late once its a top-tier election.
Turns out different things work in diifferent countries, who could have guessed?
Agree that while it may work well in other countries, it wouldn't reap the same benefits here in the States. Our system just runs different lol.
I'm not sure id be a fan of it int he australian system either... That said it clearly would work better in their system than the USA system.
@freemo @jasonetheridge
My thought exactly.