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Should voting be compulsory?
Topic Started: Jun 17 2018, 03:00 PM (58 Views)
Soopairik
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I don't think so. While it may be a great way of keeping up with the census, people shouldn't be forced by law to vote IMO. It also increases the chance of uneducated opinions should everyone be forced to vote.
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Bry89
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It shouldn't, but it's not as if someone's going to point a gun to your head if you don't vote for the next president.
Fight, in this world of aggression.
Fight, in this world of deceit.
Fight, in this war of oppression.
Fight, let the killing proceed.
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starman
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Soopairik
Jun 17 2018, 03:00 PM
It also increases the chance of uneducated opinions should everyone be forced to vote.


I'm against mandatory voting but not so sure of this. Many voters are morons and some educated people are completely turned off...
Edited by starman, Jun 18 2018, 02:04 AM.
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Soopairik
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Well, making voting compulsory definitely isn’t going to be raising the national education level.
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Firewall
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Voting definitely shouldn't be compulsory. If you want to vote and you have a reason to, go right ahead, no-one's going to stop you. If you don't want to vote and you have a reason not to, that's great too.

The thing about mandatory voting would be that people who don't give a damn about voting are forced to vote, which could potentially get some candidates votes they otherwise wouldn't have gotten if the voters knew and cared about who they were voting for. Vice-versa applies here as well.
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Jinfengopteryx
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Definitely against it. The voter's participation gives useful information to politicians, such as how much people even care about politics.
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Bry89
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Then again, there are quite a bunch of people that are strictly apolitical - i.e. don't really give a flying shit of what goes on in this world.
Fight, in this world of aggression.
Fight, in this world of deceit.
Fight, in this war of oppression.
Fight, let the killing proceed.
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earthling

Against it. The freedom to speak includes the freedom to not speak. Besides, if I'm truly undecided, not informed, or have no preference, I'm fine with letting others who know more or have more at stake make that decision.
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Soopairik
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earthling
Jun 18 2018, 07:38 PM
Against it. The freedom to speak includes the freedom to not speak. Besides, if I'm truly undecided, not informed, or have no preference, I'm fine with letting others who know more or have more at stake make that decision.
Always nice to hear from you, earthling. Even if you disagree with most of the things I say, it’s good to have some variety around here.
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earthling

Soopairik
Jun 18 2018, 07:42 PM
earthling
Jun 18 2018, 07:38 PM
Against it. The freedom to speak includes the freedom to not speak. Besides, if I'm truly undecided, not informed, or have no preference, I'm fine with letting others who know more or have more at stake make that decision.
Always nice to hear from you, earthling. Even if you disagree with most of the things I say, it’s good to have some variety around here.
I don't actually think we are much different, you and I. I think the main difference is that I've seen grand ideas (of many, many kinds) fail over and over, which has made me skeptical of ideas that have been disproven over and over through the centuries, and made me into a bit more of a stickler for proof and results and ideas consistent with human nature and experience.

For example, since LBJ's 'Great Society'--a system of welfare programs meant to cure poverty--was adopted in 1964, the United States has spent a sum of money more than today's entire national debt on it. Today that Great Society debt has become so large that it threatens the very survival of the United States. (Remember, I've been in--even lived in--countries that made the same mistakes, then disintegrated into anarchy and tyranny.) But for all that spending on these ideas, it hasn't left people better off, it's left them worse off.

And that would be possibly the greatest shame in human history, if we threw away the freest society and greatest advancements of all time, for the same free bread and circuses that brought down Rome.
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Kyng
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earthling
Jun 18 2018, 07:38 PM
Against it. The freedom to speak includes the freedom to not speak. Besides, if I'm truly undecided, not informed, or have no preference, I'm fine with letting others who know more or have more at stake make that decision.
Yep, definitely agreed here.

This was my primary reason for not voting in 2010: I didn't feel sufficiently informed on the issues - and, given that I was studying for my upcoming exams, I didn't have time to inform myself.

(I've voted in all of the other elections since then, though!)
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