There is no house-to-house mail delivery in the boonies where I live. Everyone is forced to get a post office box and pick up their bills, catalogs, & assorted junk mail there. Unless I’m driving to the office or the store, I usually walk to get my mail, about the equivalent of six city blocks one way. In my box this morning, one item: the Costco Connection magazine. The editor often runs a “debate” asking readers to take a YES or NO position on a subject of perceived topical interest. The question this time: SHOULD VOTING BE MANDATORY? Each side of the issue is represented by a supposed expert in the field who writes a short explanation of his position.
My answer is NO.
Just a superficial review of studies on the subject of voter knowledge and rationality discloses that the typical voter [excluded me and you, naturally] is ignorant, misinformed, irrational, and biased. The current euphemism that I have heard repeated over and over again is “low information voter.” It has always been thus, and the Information Age that technology has brought us has not changed things appreciably. Extreme views predominate and yell the loudest. Billions of campaign dollars are spent to play upon those prejudices. The oversimplifications of stump speeches are aimed directly at those biases. The candidates count upon the ignorance of the voters and their malleability. The candidates dread intelligent, informed voters just as trial lawyers dread intelligent, informed jurors. The idea, after all the blather and hyperbole, is to hornswoggle the voting public, to get re-elected.
Now imagine a mandate that all the illiterate or uncaring or imbecilic of the populace MUST VOTE. It would be like trying to kill the alligator in the pond by feeding him people who don’t know that he’s an alligator.
Keep in mind that this is the country that elected George W. Bush… twice! If anyone thinks that we are not still suffering terribly due to his incompetence, they haven’t been paying attention. They are the typical voter referred to above.