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15 Feb ’12
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what are your thoughts on this?
President Obama, whose party was trounced in last year’s midterm election due in part to poor turnout among Democrats, endorsed the idea of mandatory voting Wednesday.
“It would be transformative if everybody voted,” Mr. Obama said during a town-hall event in Cleveland. “That would counteract [campaign] money more than anything. If everybody voted, then it would completely change the political map in this country.”
Mr. Obama raised the subject during a discussion of curbing the influence of campaign donations in U.S. elections. The president said he had never discussed the idea publicly before, but said Australia and some other countries have compulsory voting.
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/mar/18/obama-calls-mandatory-voting-us/#ixzz3UpmBskPv
28 Feb ’12
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Voting is your right. So is not voting.
A lot of people are not voting to express that they do not agree with the way the "democratic" system works.
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jonathco
6 Feb ’14
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Yes, 2/3rds not voting is bad. Voter turnout DOES need to be 100%... of NOT voting.
I'm not joking. It would do more to rock our political system than voting ever could. Not that it would ever happen, but can you imagine the shock waves if it did?
Like Sim said, not voting is as much a right and IS still a manner of voting by saying "none of the above". Choosing between the lesser of evils is still choosing an evil. The only alternatives are not choosing at all or choosing a good from far outside the evils which isn't possible because while power corrupts, politics corrupt absolutely.
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simthefarmer, JSW
12 Oct ’12
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I was discussing this with a friend today; he told me that this would greatly improve the power of our democracy in the US. I politely reminded him that America is a republic, and that the word democracy is not mentioned anywhere in this country's founding documents.
Personally, I believe that mandatory voting would be just one more nail in the coffin of our remaining liberties in this country.
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JSW
21 Feb ’12
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I heard him giving an interview about this on NPR the other day and he was saying something along the lines of how it would reduce the influence of big money on politics. If indeed that is the problem, then instead of forcing people to do something to potentially counteract the problem, why not use an executive order to ban lobbying altogether?
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JSW15 Feb ’12
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jonathco said
I was discussing this with a friend today; he told me that this would greatly improve the power of our democracy in the US. I politely reminded him that America is a republic, and that the word democracy is not mentioned anywhere in this country's founding documents.Personally, I believe that mandatory voting would be just one more nail in the coffin of our remaining liberties in this country.
agreed
3 Feb ’15
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DangerDuke said
I heard him giving an interview about this on NPR the other day and he was saying something along the lines of how it would reduce the influence of big money on politics. If indeed that is the problem, then instead of forcing people to do something to potentially counteract the problem, why not use an executive order to ban lobbying altogether?
Exactly.
I also have been playing with the idea of no voting rights while on government assistance or recent long term government assistance > 6 months or so. If the process is going to be democratic, it seems like a bad idea for people who consistently depend on government to be able to vote. We need people to have all the incentives to get off of assistance not every reason to stay on it.
I suppose the counter argument to that would be, what about people that are actually incapable of getting of off government assistance, i.e. actual disabled people.
Thoughts?
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