Compulsory Voting

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Guessing where a particular restaurant is isn’t immoral, as there is not a necessary immorality motivating the guess.

That makes no sense. I am trying to think of an analogy for that, but it's hard. Let's see... This is like saying eating meat is moral because it is not immorality that motivates it. I hope you can see why that's an absurd argument.

If someone were to cast a vote for a measure which, unbeknownst to the voter at the time of voting, causes the deaths of 10 000 people, the voter has not acted immorally - there is no morally culpability for unintended consequences.

I think it depends on whether the voter has really done their best to inform themself on the outcomes of policies. Perhaps if the voter really had no way of knowing it would lead to deaths of 10'000 people, and if the voter had apparently-well-justified reasons to think that policy will have good results, then that voter cannot be blamed. But that's not what's going on on most elections. Most voters are probably unaware of all the policies their candidate promises to implement, much less aware of what the experts think about those policies. That's what makes voting immoral.
It would perhaps not be immoral to direct a tourist at a restaurant that you don't know is closed, as you had good reasons to think that restaurant was actually there and open (you were there a year ago...). But it would be immoral to guess that there is a restaurant somewhere (where you have no good reasons to think there is a restaurant) and to misdirect the tourist that way.

If that is the only issue that concerns the voter, he is not committing an immoral act by voting for the candidate most likely to lower taxes.

I think he is committing an immoral act there. He is literally unaware of the policies he is voting for. He is not doing his best to inform himself before voting.

1. Eating meat is not an immoral act. Why do you think it is?

2. Thank you. You’ve just refuted Huemer’s view that ALL voting, in and of itself, is immoral. I happily stipulate that some voters are behaving immorally when they knowingly vote for immoral policies or candidates, but that’s not Huemer’s position. Ignorance of a candidate’s policies is not an immoral act.

3. Suppose you find a wallet in the street. The wallet is stuffed with cash and credit cards. You find the owner’s name and address in the wallet. Unfortunately, he lives more than 100 miles away and you lack the means to return it in person. Being a good citizen, you turn the wallet in to your local police station and they return the wallet. Later, you discover that the owner of the wallet was a paedophile and used the money you returned to him to purchase child pornography. Have you committed an immoral act by returning the wallet before you found out everything you could about the owner?

Boru