Due to our recent national election, it has been brought back to my attention that voting in Australia is "mandatory". That's a pretty broad statement that I seriously doubt actually encompasses the reality of voting in Australia. Would one of you Aussie THL members please expand on that generalization and educated the rest of us on what 'the rest of the story' is? I would like to understand the details of, AND the rationale for, "mandatory" voting in Oz.

Paul

PS - Let's keep this thread on topic and not wander off into the weeds of the results of the recent US election, please.

Paul

In short, if you are enrolled to vote, you are required to vote in all elections. Federal, State, and local Govenment. If you don't vote you can cop a fine. That said you don't actually need to cast you ballot. You just need to get your name signed off on the role.
We have means to vote early if you are doing to be absent or working on the day of voting, postal ballot etc. which is what I do.
I'm not sure why our voting is compulsory. Maybe it is from the pommy days? I have also been told that it was a means to help prevent people being intimidated into not voting at all, but this could be somewhat archaic.
There is some debate about who should be allowed to vote and if voting should be compulsory. I don't believe long term welfare bludgers should be allowed to vote, they don't contribute to our society. I have nothing against compulsory voting.
I don't think that having compulsory voting means we have a higher number of "uneducated" voters. Any election is a sales pitch, smoke and mirrors, and any member of the public can be swayed either way by a few words or actions. The number of informal votes and "donkey" votes is quite low overall.

That was clear, but there are a couple of points I'm still unclear on.

1) "Enrolled to vote" - Is that by choice or mandate? If not mandated, then Australia does NOT truly have 'compulsory' voting.
2) If 'enrollment' is compulsory, how is enrollment enforced?
3) If enrollment is NOT compulsory, I assume one has to enroll in order to vote. Then, if I understand correctly, once 'enrolled', one MUST vote.

If #3 is correct, it sounds a bit like our "registration", except that even after registering, we are not forced to vote. Here, one can NOT vote unless one is "registered", (and one can only vote within the state in which one is registered and one can only register in which one is a legal resident), but just because one is registered to vote, one does NOT have to vote. Furthermore, there is no benefit to being registered OR to voting, and there is no penalty for not registering or not voting, even if registered.

Does anyone know of a country other than Australia in which voting is 'compulsory'?

Paul

PS - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_voting

Paul