Towards a somewhat logical defence of compulsory voting.
This is not the only way to defend compulsory voting, but it’s one of the simplest.
If we assert the right to live in a democracy, then we make it imperative that there are people who vote. The right to live in a democracy is therefore purchased by the responsibility to vote. If we were to allow that everyone had the right not to vote, then in what way could we deliver to anybody the right to live in a democracy?
Simply put: if nobody voted, then there would be no democracy in which we could assert our right to live. If you claim the right to live in a democracy then it is incumbent on you to do your part to create that democracy.
I think that my personal argument against compulsory voting stems from the idea self-knowledge and informed choices. First, in a democracy everyone has the right to vote. The nature of democracy means that no one’s right can be abridged, whether because of who they are (sex, race, sexual orientation, etc.) or what they know (level of education, knowledge of the candidates, etc.).
That said, I think that if an individual is not engaged or informed about the potential choices or if they are unaffected by the purpose or outcome of the vote (for example, a vote to increase property tax millage to fund schools for a voter who is a renter and childless), then they should be able to make a responsible decision not to vote, because they either lack the information to make a choice or simply aren’t influenced by the results. You can’t bar someone else from voting because they lack that information, but I certainly think that it could be seen as a responsible choice to abstain from voting for yourself if you so choose.
If the ballot had an abstain option (which no ballot I’ve ever seen does) then I could see making the act of getting the ballot and marking “abstain” compulsory, and there may well be benefit to that, but as it stands today I think that it can be the correct choice for some people to simply not vote in certain situations.
Source: indefensible
