vote! or else.

[claymore]

We have the same system of government in Australia as you have in Britain. Here it is compulsory to vote in any election, council, state or federal, why is it not for you?

[JoolsTwo]

I think it should be claymore..................As long as they add the option 'None of the above'.

[bibblebub]

Perhaps it should be, although judging by people being turned away because a 10% upsurge in turnout caused the polling stations to be unable to cope doesn't bode well using the current arcane mechanism.

What is the penalty for not voting? If it results in a court case then our legal system would be swamped because so many people are used to just not bothering.

[DrFilth]

some people queued for over 2 and a 1/4 hours then turned away, mounted police had to be used at manchester town hall to move them on when they complained.

if they can't look after 60% , what chance if everyone wanted to vote ?

[Kromovaracun]

"why is it not for you? "

Because that's a really annoying regulation. You should have the right not to vote. And yes, for all the self-righteous condemnation of it, you also have the right to be apathetic about politics.

[redman41]

Our Electoral Commission has been campaigning for a more up to date voting system to replace the antiquated system we still use in Polling Stations i.e Paper and Pencil.
We could do without Polling Stations and use local Libraries to vote via a Computerised system, but monitoring and help would have to be on hand.
There has to be a complete re-think of the whole voting process.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.timesonlin...15/REV_01_715486a.jpg

[claymore]

Aog, that says it all!

[claymore]

The penalty for not voting is a 35 dollar fine,needless to say this rakes in a tidy little sum every election.

[Zeuhl]

Why is it a good thing to have a significant proportion of your election's vote forced out of people who don't care, have no interest and probably have no better basis for placing their vote than 'eeny meeny miney moe'?