Mandatory Voting?

[Tensu]

What do you think about it? Should it be a law? Is it a law where you live?

I personally think it's a bad idea. You shouldn't force people to vote when they don't want to. I feel it would only cause careless and uneducated votes. Even though it's a responsibility, mandatory voting won't fix what people care.

 

[That Zephyr Guy]

Why should I be forced to vote if I don't like either of the candidates?

 

[Aquari]

wait WOT theres going to be a law that forces you to vote?

 

[Tensu]

wait WOT theres going to be a law that forces you to vote?

Some people in the United States want it to happen. I don't think it will anytime soon though.

 

[Fleshy]

I think voting is important, and people should be encouraged to vote, as well as be encoraged to be educated on politics and similar current affairs.

However, I think mandatory voting is completely absurd. There's many reasons people refrain from voting, one of the main ones being lack of knowledge, as you said, that'll just lead to an influx of people voting on things they have no, or very little, knowledge of. It's also taking away people's right to choose, which really seems rather backwards to me, if someone isn't voting, that's their choice, and they should be entitled to said choice. I would always advocate voting, specially in young people, but if I were in America, I think I'd choose to refrain from voting, being forced into voting when you don'tagree with any of the candidates is completely counterproductive.

Education would be a way forward; not force.

 

[jiny]

i think it's a bad idea.

 

[nintendofan85]

I honestly don't know. I think it's good to vote, but if I don't like either candidate, I wouldn't. I'd say that I don't want mandatory voting, but I'd just vote as much as I could.

 

[Soigne]

Mandatory voting is a bad idea in general. There are people who are uneducated and vote now, we don't need an increase in that number by making people who aren't going to vote, vote.

I personally think it's a bad idea. You shouldn't force people to vote when they don't want to. I feel it would only cause careless and uneducated votes. Even though it's a responsibility, mandatory voting won't fix what people care.

Voting is a right, not a responsibility.

 

[Red Cat]

I don't think it's necessarily a good idea to force people to vote, but from an American perspective, if all of the disinterested voters even showed up to vote for a third-party or cast a write-in vote, it would reveal how much desire there is for other candidates besides Trump and Clinton. As it is, one of them will likely get over 50% and claim that (s)he represents the will of the people. If enough people cast third party / write-in votes, then the winner might only get 35-40% and that makes it much more difficult to claim an electoral mandate.

 

[visibleghost]

forcing ppl to vote doesn't seem like a good idea to me, imo it's better to encourage ppl to vote. a lot of people don't like any of the candidates - maybe it would be better for the US to change their sustem a bit?

And people need to be educated on politics and know the importance of voting. Letting the people know that they can make a difference is incredible important. also i'm pretty sure you can vote a blank vote if you don't want to vote for anything, lol.

if ppl are just forced to vote without knowing anything about politics the political system will not get better or more accurate. it will just force confused ppl who don't care to vote for some random person. ssooo itms important to make them care !! yeah

 

[Tensu]

Mandatory voting is a bad idea in general. There are people who are uneducated and vote now, we don't need an increase in that number by making people who aren't going to vote, vote.



Voting is a right, not a responsibility.

Voting is both a right and a responsibility. I don't get what you're trying to say, we both agree on the same thing. It's a responsibility to be an informed voter. Of course you should not be forced to vote, but you should.

 

[Soigne]

Voting is both a right and a responsibility. I don't get what you're trying to say, we both agree on the same thing. It's a responsibility to be an informed voter. Of course you should not be forced to vote, but you should.

I'm just saying if voting were a responsibility it would be mandatory; it's like jury duty in America, that's a responsibility and you're required to serve if called. You're not required to vote.

 

[lovendor]

Voting is important, but if you force people into doing it then there'll be a lot of problems. Just because you're obligated to vote doesn't mean you'll properly educate yourself on what/who you're voting for, and some people might just buy into propaganda and vote for whoever spread the best. If anything, I feel like there needs to be more incentives to voting. Stricter hand on places that don't give their employees time to vote (those of lower-income tend to not vote out of fear of missing work and either getting fired or making less pay, which isn't right and shouldn't hinder you if you want to vote!), or something. I can't come up with any other idea that wouldn't cost an extensive amount of money to implement.

 

[Kirbystarship]

I don't think you should force people to vote.

 

[Red Cat]

Voting is important, but if you force people into doing it then there'll be a lot of problems. Just because you're obligated to vote doesn't mean you'll properly educate yourself on what/who you're voting for, and some people might just buy into propaganda and vote for whoever spread the best.

Actually, people who don't vote are less likely to buy into propaganda, because if they believed it, they would get really scared and go out to vote for/against a candidate. People who don't vote usually ignore that stuff altogether. Look at the nomination of Trump as an example. A lot of uninformed people showed up and voted while more rational people stayed home.

 

[Miii]

There's no way to realistically enforce a law like that, so even if it was enacted, it wouldn't work. And even if they did manage enforce it, it would just needlessly put people in jail or force them to pay fines. Plus, not every one keeps up with the news and has time to thoroughly research each candidate to make an educated choice, so I think letting citizens have the choice to vote is the right way to go.

 

[ShinyYoshi]

In theory, it would be nice if everyone took the time to vote, but making it mandatory won't really help anything. I'd also rather have informed people be the ones voting. Uninformed voters won't help anything.

 

[Bowie]

No. Bad idea.

 

[Mr. Cat]

I voted no.

Hey people, if you don't like the candidates, please look into 3rd parties. Do SOMETHING if you care.

 

[Draco]

I don't think you should have to vote, But with that said i think u should vote. I would go as far as to reward people who do, maybe a tax credit.