Voting in the elections?

[LadyMelina]

Does anyone else think that voting in elections should be compulsory? Women fought long and hard enough and some countries dont allow it. Also then we would know for sure why and how parties won. Is that not the simplest way? Instead of all these other ways? (in a simple way) i.e Cons got most seats but Labour are still the Government? It doesn't make sense. ( Yes I know the system I did Sociology). KIS, Why make it more complicated?

[Hawkwalk]

The whole point of having freedom to vote has to be balanced with having the freedom not to vote. By making it compulsory you are going against the right to freedom that we all so desire.
Also considering most voters do not have a clue about the policies of the party they vote for it really makes little difference if 60% or 100% of the people vote.

[jno]

Australians have to vote, and they are not noticeably lacking in freedom. They can spoil their ballot if they want to make a point.

[Hawkwalk]

A bit pointless making voting compulsory if you can turn up and spoil your ballot thus making your vote not count therefor you are not voting.

[factor-fiction]

Even if voting were compulsory it wouldn't prevent the scenario you describe (Cons got most seats but Labour are still the Government) from arising.

[jno]

that comes about because the first past the post system works for two parties but will often fail to work when there are more than two parties involved - as now. I'd prefer some sort of PR system myself, but others don't like them as it takes a while to hammer out a government, much longer than this current one will take.

[dzug2]

The Australian system leads to something they call the 'Donkey Vote' by those forced to the polls who are too thick just to spoil their vote - people either vote randomly or the lazy ones just vote for the first candidate in the list.

Not exactly guaranteed to be a representation of the views of the people.

And even there registration doesn't seem to be that thorough. I spent some time there and was only once in several years approached to see why I hadn't registered. They accepted a verbal 'not eligible' with no quibble.

[bednobs]

i'm sure that women didn't "fight long and hard" so that i could be told what to do by the government! Or to be told that i MUST do something - how is that any different from being told that i musn't do something?

[rojash]

"I did Sociology"
You shouldn't reveal embarrassing secrets on here.

[Tim123]

The current system is slanted hugely against minor parties, but also slanted towards Labour. The Conservatives polled 36.1% of the vote, but are well short of an overall majority. In 2005, Labour's lower polling of 35.3% gave them an overall majority of 66. Most galling is that some of this imbalance is due to Scotland being over represented at Westminster, in terms of MPs per head of population. This is despite the fact that Scottish MPs have no business voting on matters that have been devolved to the Scottish Parliament.

[joko]

i wonder if people would possibly set up voting rings...selling their voting slips to unscrupulous candidates or just someone wants to affect the vote...