[WMCoolmon]

Originally posted by karajorma


Which would prove to other candidates that there are a large number of people out there willing to vote but unwilling to vote for what they see at the moment.

Actually it would just show that there are a large number of people who don't want to be fined/thrown in prison.

[Nico]

Originally posted by Maeglamor

[color=66ff00]It's the american mentality that 'our justice system is best' when it's widely accepted that it's an utter disgusting joke.

Rich people rule, laws are made by inept old men (particularly in reference to computing and the internet) and it's a simple case of a large company keeping a small company in the courts long enough for the smaller company to run out of cash and lose by proxy.
[/color]

No... In fact I meant it seemed stinky just because there was exactly the right amount of bad thing for it to look real, but still make a good enough view of the subject.
I'm usually not a conspiracy guy, but there, it really is too big imho.

[karajorma]

Originally posted by WMCoolmon


Actually it would just show that there are a large number of people who don't want to be fined/thrown in prison.

Only if you brought in mandatory voting. At the moment it would have that effect.

[mikhael]

You're right. Don't vote.

[WMCoolmon]

If you don't care, don't vote.

If you care (or want people to care), then vote.

OTOH, maybe mandatory voting is what the US needs to shock it out of its withdrawn state right now. It depends how many people would see it as their 'duty' and research it further, and how many people would see it as a 'chore' and rebel against it.

[Goober5000]

no.  Mandatory voting fixes the symptom, not the cause.  It won't help and it will likely make things worse.

[Rictor]

Not really. If it takes equal effort to spoil your vote as to cast a legitimate one, people would likely take the extra few seconds to vote for the least dislikable choice.

Though one could argue that voter apathy is a sign that all parties are up to such a high standard that voters feel their daily lives will not be affected by a change in government, which is arguably the point.

[Goober5000]

No.  Mandatory voting increases the likelihood of the voting populace being manipulated by the politicians they're voting for.  Participation increases but apathy and personal research remain constant.

[Kosh]

Personal research almost doesn't exist in this country.

[karajorma]

Which is why mandatory voting is a bad idea. You'd get idiots voting for the person they found the most attractive or other crap like that.

Anyone who cares so little about the process that they don't want to vote shouldn't be forced to do so.

On the other hand the second manditory voting comes in I'm running for parliment. I've got a tactic in mind that would probably get me elected (I'm 100% certain I wouldn't lose my deposit)

[Mefustae]

Personally, i like Fry's mentality when he said;

"Oh yeah, I was gonna vote for you once...but voting isn't cool, so I stayed home and got trashed on Listerine"

[WMCoolmon]

*Blatantly ignores discussion of matters of national security*

My favorite Futurama quote has gotta be:

PROFESSOR:     "And Fry, you've got that brain thing!"
FRY:     "I already did!"

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by karajorma
Which is why mandatory voting is a bad idea. You'd get idiots voting for the person they found the most attractive or other crap like that.

Anyone who cares so little about the process that they don't want to vote shouldn't be forced to do so.

On the other hand the second manditory voting comes in I'm running for parliment. I've got a tactic in mind that would probably get me elected (I'm 100% certain I wouldn't lose my deposit)

You're changing your name to 'none of the above'?

[karajorma]

I can see that working quite well can't you?

[Kosh]

Which is why mandatory voting is a bad idea. You'd get idiots voting for the person they found the most attractive or other crap like that.

That already happens in this country, with most people who do vote. With mandatory voting we would just get the entire country doing that.

[Black Wolf]

Originally posted by WMCoolmon
That'd be even worse. You'd have people going to the ballots and choosing random candidates based on how funny their name sounds, because they won't be arsed to do any research.

What we need is some kind of incentive for making good voting choices.

Really? The funny named people don't win here, where voting is mandatory. In fact, it works quite well.

[JoeLo]

Psst.. on the topic of voting the two party system screws us over. It's just plain wrong they should have a cap limit on advertising take the best part about socialism and apply to capitalism and you have awesomingsisme ala me!