Solution :: Require that all people legally eligible to vote in federal elections do so.

Require that all people legally eligible to vote in federal elections do so.

2,039 Views / Posted by Kyle Halgerson

All US citizens over the age of 18 that are not rendered ineligible to vote due to the commission of a crime are required to vote in all federal elections.

Voting in party primaries, state elections, and local elections is not required by this bill, but instead are subject to the laws of individual parties, states, and local governments.

In order to minimize the hassle of voting, the process of obtaining an absentee ballot should be streamlined.

Supporters: Kyle Halgerson, Dana Leader, Brian Sperling, Kyle Rutland, Alex Mozes

Opponents: Matteo Kausch, Kelly Wooters, Luis Soberon, David Sauter

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	Kelly Wooters / October 31, 2011 at 8:10 PM EDT I agree that people SHOULD vote, but REQUIRING them to vote would mostly likely cause millions of random, uninformed votes.

	Luis Soberon / November 3, 2011 at 2:00 AM EDT Requiring voting has a few complications. I'll name two that come to mind First is the practicality concern. There needs to be an enforcement mechanism in place and it's hard to see one that does not seem really intrusive. The least intrusive measure would be incentivizing, like saying that voting exempts you from a "non-voter" tax every other April. The second worry is the rights argument. There is something to be said about not voting. Maybe a perfectly informed person does not want to vote and use that as a symbolic gesture. What would this kind of law make of that kind of right?

	David Sauter / November 6, 2011 at 10:18 AM EST There's also the problem that requiring people to vote injects a lot of noise into the system and gives even more power to the media companies. You can't require people to think.

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4		The voter turnout rate is very low.
		The voter turnout in the 2010 federal elections was less than 42%. As the majority of eligible voters do not vote, the majority of the democratic power in the US is concentrated in the far wings of the political spectrum that are politically motivated enough to vote. Furthermore, those types of people are the most receptive to the hard-line party propaganda that limits support for bipartisan cooperation. http://elections.gmu.edu/Turnout_2010G.html


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