Fines for Not Voting: Viable U.S. Method to Deter Voter Apathy or Losing a Right?
It seems the smallest towns in America are the ones with the biggest ideas that are too large to carry on the town’s back. You can say that about Ridgway, Colorado where a local pub owner has been trying to get compulsory voting on the ballots throughout 2010 as a potential snowball to the rest of the country. (See Resources) But, so far, it’s led to mostly resistance from Ridgway residents, despite painful evidence from their voting polls that barely a quarter of the town’s 700+ residents ever vote in an election. On a more diffuse scale, the epic expanse of America only had 67% of its voting citizens voting when Barack Obama swept the public imagination for the Presidency in 2008.
No word whether any of those people actually did go to the polls and then turned around with a last second haste when not seeing a “none of the above” option available.
If a small American town can’t take a big political idea and run with it, then apparently big countries with different sensibilities from America can. You might not know that thirty countries have compulsory voting laws, though with only a little over half of them actually enforcing it. Australia may be the best known country in the world that imposes state and federal compulsory voting and demanding a very good reason from citizens if they fail to vote. In the event you don’t provide a reason, they impose a fine of $20 plus another $50 fine (and court costs) if you fail to pay up.
Add to that various countries in South America such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Peru, which set similar fines and requirements for voting. Conversely, it doesn’t seem all that surprising in South America where complete freedom of the people hasn’t always been as open as it is in North America.
Whether or not the people mutually agree on compulsory voting in those other countries, those of us in America don’t even seem to think about it. And there isn’t much evidence that our government thinks about it either. It can’t be much of a secret that the reason is voter apathy keeps the same stale names around in Congress–hence breeding more public contempt for the status quo being upheld.
Yet there’s still a strong contingency force in the celebrity world that perpetually tells everyone to Rock the Vote. In 2008, 33% of them decided to not rock it. And who knows how many more won’t in the 2010 midterms or 2012 Presidential election.
In the rare times the opinion ever arises for the U.S. to consider compulsory voting, most immediate response is that voting is a right that shouldn’t be forced. The thought seems solid that we have the right to not vote as a form of protest against being trapped in a Catch-22 of the two-party system. This odd logic doesn’t take into account that the two-party system will continue even longer if potential voters don’t at least make an attempt to do a write-in at the voting booth.
The counterargument then persists that even an unorganized write-in campaign is generally fruitless when alternative parties are frequently advertised as being nothing but a bunch of kooks.
So if there ever came a panicked time when registered voter turnout went well below 50%, what would happen if the government considered fines for not voting? The Supreme Court would likely have to intervene (twice) at the end of a long, tortuous road.
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When you analyze the general temperament of America, you realize that fines seem to never be steep enough for some people. If fines worked for everything, there wouldn’t be so many people still getting caught for speeding or making bail to get out of having to spend a single night in jail. That’s why any fine imposed on not voting in America would have to be higher than a parking ticket fine to make any difference on getting people to the polls. Before that’s even considered, though, our Congress would have reps and senators debating a potential law into long, stormy nights.
The first argument you’d hear would probably be from the left and the ACLU who wouldn’t hesitate to oppose it based on the destruction of an American freedom. First things first would be long readings Mr. Smith style of the Constitution and reminding that there isn’t anything specific in there saying our voting rights should be altered under any situation.
Conversely, the right would perhaps want to make it law and point out the Constitution also has nothing specific that says we can’t impose voting fines. Though they’d only base their support on the idea that the money from the fines go toward paying down the national debt or any forced voting choice would likely go to them if Democrats have a long dominance in D.C.
Should there be any alternative parties in Congress with a voice, there may be support for such an endeavor. Look out, though, for the Voting Fines Are Too Damn High party that also likes the idea of having a better chance at winning with 100% of the American people voting. Also watch out for excuse mills that would dole out believable excuses to people who have to provide a good reason for not voting as those in Australia have to do. That might be yet another method of online employment for freelance writers.
And if compulsory voting happened to pass by a hair, the public consensus seems to say that the Supreme Court would have to take it on to settle it. They’d have to make yet another decision on yet another issue that ultimately became divided by whether you were a Democrat or Republican.
More than just the Supreme Court having to make a complicated decision on compulsory voting, all of the American populace would have to get behind it to prove its worth. As we’ve seen in America, however, no complicated issue ever seems to have bipartisan consensus and somehow becomes another political war between the dueling parties. It’s for that very reason compulsory voting would never be done here…willingly.
Then there’s that option of providing a “None of the Above” box on all the ballots. Providing such an option without the concept of compulsory voting fines would be the ultimate social experiment in seeing if writing in voter apathy is more powerful than not showing up to vote.
We shouldn’t be surprised if voter turnout then goes to over 90% and we elect Senator or President None of the Above to usurp the status quo. In the meantime, the Supreme Court gets a massive headache and decides to implement Compulsory Alternative Parties into the next debates and elections.
