The electoral nightmare we should all fear

sunshine100 · Nov 5, 2018

Lucky for me I got to vote this weekend

Monk Brendan · Nov 5, 2018

HTacianas said:
As I've been watching the news lately I have noticed a terrifying truth that should cause all of us deep concern.

According to the media, tomorrow millions of stupid people will go to the polls and vote. These people, regardless of how stupid they are, have not been purged from any voter registration rolls in any jurisdiction. In fact, local canvassers have been actively registering stupid people to vote across the country. Tomorrow, stupid people will determine the course of our nation's future.

Be afraid.

There is no constitutionally required IQ level for those 18 or over to vote.

And there have ALWAYS been stupid people voting, but the USA remains nevertheless.

You are Orthodox and should know better than to worry about things like this.

PloverWing · Nov 5, 2018

So, the mention of voter ID reminds me that we have weird things in the US related to voter turnout. Sometimes, there have been cases of voter fraud. Sometimes, on the other end, there are policies put into place to try to suppress voter turnout. @Paidiske , how does Australia handle this? They have to enforce that everybody votes exactly once. How do they make sure that no one votes twice, while also making sure that voter identification isn't so burdensome that people give up and go home without voting?

Paidiske · Nov 5, 2018

PloverWing said:
So, the mention of voter ID reminds me that we have weird things in the US related to voter turnout. Sometimes, there have been cases of voter fraud. Sometimes, on the other end, there are policies put into place to try to suppress voter turnout. @Paidiske , how does Australia handle this? They have to enforce that everybody votes exactly once. How do they make sure that no one votes twice, while also making sure that voter identification isn't so burdensome that people give up and go home without voting?

I just show my driver's licence. I assume there are alternatives in place for people who don't have one, but I've never had to work out what they are.

You could, perhaps, in theory spend the day driving around different polling booths trying to vote more than once. This would be picked up later, though, and if they could prove you'd done it there are severe penalties (more info here: Voting within Australia – Frequently Asked Questions ).

MoneyGuy · Nov 5, 2018

Stupid people voting and a stupid person occupying the Oval Office.

And no to compulsory voting. It’s a terrible idea.

Paidiske · Nov 5, 2018

MoneyGuy said:
And no to compulsory voting. It’s a terrible idea.

Why?

MoneyGuy · Nov 6, 2018

Paidiske said:
Why?

I’m a municipal politician. We have enough people voting now for poor reasons such as, “I know him and he’s a good guy,” or, “she was the only one who came to my door.”

I contend that if people are forced to vote you’ll have many voting just to meet a legal requirement and won’t give any effort.

I’d prefer, in order to vote, that everyone had to attend one of the candidate forums to get a card so you could vote. I hate the idea of compulsory voting.

Phil 1:21 · Nov 6, 2018

My only election nightmare is that they decide to have a do-over and we have to endure another month of political ads, junk mail, and spam texts.

Yarddog · Nov 6, 2018

Paidiske said:
I'm going to suggest something which may be counter-intuitive, and that is that one thing Australia does which seems to serve us better is that voting is compulsory here.

It wouldn't be legal here. Our Constitution protects freedom of speech which includes the freedom not to speak. It is sad that more people don't get involved but that is their right.

Paidiske · Nov 6, 2018

MoneyGuy said:
I’m a municipal politician. We have enough people voting now for poor reasons such as, “I know him and he’s a good guy,” or, “she was the only one who came to my door.”

I contend that if people are forced to vote you’ll have many voting just to meet a legal requirement and won’t give any effort.

I’d prefer, in order to vote, that everyone had to attend one of the candidate forums to get a card so you could vote. I hate the idea of compulsory voting.

No doubt there's a level of that. But like I said, it also protects us from some of the worst effects of having to motivate people to vote at all. So there are benefits and drawbacks.

Personally I think our system works quite well, compared to what I see over there.

FireDragon76 · Nov 6, 2018

Paidiske said:
Why?

It wouldn't withstand constitutional challenges relating to personal freedoms.

Paidiske · Nov 6, 2018

That doesn't make it a terrible idea. It just means it's perhaps a poor cultural fit in America.

Doctor.Sphinx · Nov 7, 2018

HTacianas said:
As I've been watching the news lately I have noticed a terrifying truth that should cause all of us deep concern.

According to the media, tomorrow millions of stupid people will go to the polls and vote. These people, regardless of how stupid they are, have not been purged from any voter registration rolls in any jurisdiction. In fact, local canvassers have been actively registering stupid people to vote across the country. Tomorrow, stupid people will determine the course of our nation's future.

Be afraid.

This is the error of deviating from the Greek method of democracy. Today, it's little more than mob rule. Might as well open the polls to children and cattle, for all the sense you're going to get from voters today.

Doctor.Sphinx · Nov 7, 2018

Monk Brendan said:
And there have ALWAYS been stupid people voting, but the USA remains nevertheless.

But there are many more stupid people voting today, than say, 1918. A ship won't sink from a small leak. But there is a point where a large number of small leaks will sink the ship.

archer75 · Nov 7, 2018

Paidiske said:
I'm going to suggest something which may be counter-intuitive, and that is that one thing Australia does which seems to serve us better is that voting is compulsory here.

And while you'd think that would only mean more stupid people would vote, what it does protect us from is the race to the bottom in the attempt to motivate people to vote. Our politicians are - theoretically - free to present their best policies to the public secure in the knowledge that they don't have to convince us to vote; they only have to convince us to vote for them.

Now, in practice of course we have plenty of coarse politicking. But we don't seem to have become so polarised or so extreme as America, and my guess is that this is part of the reason. Just about every citizen will turn out and vote rather than be fined, so the whole tenor of the debate is different.

This sounds like a great idea.

The Barbarian · Nov 7, 2018

Stupid people vote. But collectively, people seem to do a pretty good job. Compare democracies to the way Russian, North Korea, and Venezuela are run.

Yes, Trump likes the way their leaders operate, but fact is, we've done a lot better job doing it our way, even if we do occasionally elect a mistake.

The Barbarian · Nov 7, 2018

archer75 said:
This sounds like a great idea.

It has no chance for the time being. The official ideology of the right is that the fewer people voting, the better it is for them.

archer75 · Nov 7, 2018

The Barbarian said:
It has no chance for the time being. The official ideology of the right is that the fewer people voting, the better it is for them.

Yeah, no kidding. Still sounds promising to me. National holiday, early voting, vote.

The Barbarian · Nov 7, 2018

archer75 said:
Yeah, no kidding. Still sounds promising to me. National holiday, early voting, vote.

Yep. I like it. But as I said, the right would have a conniption.

archer75 · Nov 7, 2018

The Barbarian said:
Yep. I like it. But as I said, the right would have a conniption.

Seems to be that being against people voting is a strong black mark against your entire brand of politics...

The electoral nightmare we should all fear

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