On compulsory voting

Almost 20,000 NSW residents have been slapped with $55 fines in the past year for failing to vote in council by-elections they may not have known were being held.

During the 2005-06 financial years, the State Electoral Office sent out $1.1 million worth of fines for just 15 by-elections.

Those who do not pay face higher penalties from the State Debt Recovery Office.

One of the vey first questions posed to me by politicians on this side of the Pacific is: Do you think compulsory voting a better system?

I know what they are getting at, you can see it in their eyes; If voters were required by law to vote then we could ditch the GOTV effort and put the resources into more effective parts of campaigning.

Not that any of them would have the guts to even suggest compulsory voting legislation, it’s just a fantasy.

In my only foray into North American style campaigning I saw a lot of merit in GOTV, also a lot of potential for dirty tricks, but so it is with most aspects of campaigning.

The story above, which prompted these thoughts, went on to suggest that many of those fined were simply not aware of a local by-election. It’s not a big news grabber, and hardly a favourite BBQ topic.

Compulsory voting is not a guarantee of turnout, and figures show that, in reality, turnout is not far above the US voter turnout.

A quick Aussie breakdown: First a voter must enroll, the Electoral Commission just encourage enrollment, threaten and bluster, they don’t really enforce it. So 15 per cent of the eligible population do not even enroll to vote.

We lose another 5 percent on ballot day because that number, even though enrolled, fail to attend a voting booth. After we allow for 4 per cent lost to informal voting, we are down to three quarters of the eligible population actually lodging a valid vote on election day.

Compulsory voting makes a difference to turnout, but not as much as many people think, Australia’s “true” participation rate is about 76 per cent, which is not that far above the OECD mean of 70 per cent.

Traditionally compulsory voting favoured working class parties, which tended to the left. These days much of that democratic are further to the right than Dick Cheney.

It was the relative might of that left factor, in Australia, which ensured the law remained in place.

It stays there now because of laziness and/or the belief that it conserves campaign resources for other efforts.

Obviously what it does do is make candidates and parties lazy. Comparative studies show that Australian voters have a greater, general, political knowledge than there US counterparts, but it is marginal.

Politics still doesn’t reach the heady heights of Uncle Jim’s holiday snaps for popularity.

If the candidates and parties are not out there, even advising of a pending vote, many potential voters are not likely to be engaged enough to notice.