(March 24, 2015 at 6:34 am)Aractus Wrote: Mandatory voting does not require you to vote for a candidate. It requires you to attend a polling booth and place a ballot paper in a ballot box, which you can leave blank if you do not want to vote for a candidate.
Oh, and you wouldn't want to put a "none" option on the ballot because that would just encourage people to cast an informal vote which is counter-productive to the voting process.
"None" is counter-productive to the voting process, but stuffing the ballot box with blank paper is okay; got it.
The following is a general comment and should not be construed as a direct reply to Aractus:
"We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness; ..." - Thomas Jefferson (original draft of the Declaration of Independence).
Mandatory voting is antithetical to a society that holds liberty as one of its basic rights. Seriously, how does forcing the citizenry to show up at an appointed place, on a specific date, between certain hours, to carry out a prescribed task mesh with the idea of liberty?
Liberty is necessarily curtailed by law when action, or inaction in cases where there's a duty to care, would result in harm to others; including depriving others of their rights. Not voting doesn't come anywhere near meeting this test which is why I find the proposition so repulsive.
