On May 3, two of the 20-or-so countries with compulsory voting will hold general elections: Singapore and Australia. Naturally, there’s quite a bit of chatter at the moment about whether compelling people into ballot booths actually works. It’s far from obvious that Singapore is a great advertisement for the democratic process, but anyway.
I am not instinctively opposed to mandatory voting, though my concern is always with conscientious abstention. The right not to vote is as important as the right to vote, while claims that it is a civic duty, as opposed to a civic right, ought to be treated as, at best, sloppy reasoning. Comparisons between voting and paying taxes – both civic duties, according to some – can be disabused.
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