The case for making voting compulsory in America, as it is in Australia: Voting is a “public responsibility of all citizens, no less important than jury duty”. Compulsory voting improves the quality of democracy by making election outcomes more representative. It protects voting rights from erosion.
— E.J. Dionne Jr. & Miles Rapoport, via Literary Hub
Of course, the real goal is partisan, and is to forcefully counter the “national scandal” of rightwing voter suppression (“civic duty voting would end the cycle of exclusion…”), which is precisely why it stands no chance.The authors opine that “the representativeness of our elections would increase”, but there are a lot of people in the US who would not have that. Even if it were the law of the land, what is to say that people resenting their obligation would vote with any semblance of responsibility or thoughtfulness? The article is long on the principles involved, with which I of course agree, but devoid of a realistic appraisal of how we might even begin to get there.
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