The Student Vote Is Surging. So Are Efforts to Suppress It.

[Aryeh Jay]

It may be able to prevent rigging granular outcomes, but with the aspect of gerrymandering, rigging overall outcomes with regards to the legislative representation in our country wouldn't be addressed by compulsory voting.

When the incumbents are carving up district lines so you end up with outcomes like this:
View attachment 265693

It's very difficult to have fair representation, or even get people truly interested in the process.

PA is a state in which even though more than half of the population voted democrat (for congressional elections), republicans ended up with nearly 3 times the number of seats in congress.

The concepts of "packing" & "cracking" are two I'd recommend people take a glance at.

Sounds like sour grapes that the Democrats had their tactic used against them.

 

[Occams Barber]

It may be able to prevent rigging granular outcomes, but with the aspect of gerrymandering, rigging overall outcomes with regards to the legislative representation in our country wouldn't be addressed by compulsory voting.

When the incumbents are carving up district lines so you end up with outcomes like this:
View attachment 265693

It's very difficult to have fair representation, or even get people truly interested in the process.

PA is a state in which even though more than half of the population voted democrat (for congressional elections), republicans ended up with nearly 3 times the number of seats in congress.

The concepts of "packing" & "cracking" are two I'd recommend people take a glance at.

I agree that compulsory voting doesn't stop gerrymandering although having groups of likely non-voters in specific districts tends to encourage the practice.

What does stop gerrymandering is taking the task of drawing boundaries away from those with a political motivation. In Australia, State and Federal electorate boundaries are drawn up by independent Electoral Commissions based on standard rules - there is no political involvement. Since the process is transparent any potential boundary bias is obvious and can be dealt with.

Going back in time gerrymandering was sometimes a problem (particularly in Queensland). Taking the political class out of the exercise has stopped the problem.

OB

 

[JackRT]

Must have been pretty smooth since your whole countries population is less than California.

Bigger is not always better.

 

[tall73]

We just had a federal election here in Canada. The campaign was 40 days long.

The actual voting was 40 days long, or there were only 40 days to make a case?

 

[jgarden]

The Student Vote Is Surging. So Are Efforts to Suppress It.

Trump is already trying to suppress the 2020 Republican Primaries and state conventions to make the National Convention a political "coronation," rather than dealing with whatever dissention that exists in a democratic manner!

I predict that the 2020 General Election will see the systematic resurrection of "Jim Crow" tactics to a degree that hasn't been witnessed in modern American history - all in an attempt to "steal" the election from the Democratic majority!

 

[JackRT]

The actual voting was 40 days long, or there were only 40 days to make a case?

The campaign itself is to be no longer than 40 days by law.

 

[FireDragon76]

They do wonderful things like require voting IDs, then close the centers where they can be obtained more easily by people without cars. Then they'll throw in the additional issue of limiting business hours. Then claim the ID is free and attack people for having trouble obtaining it.

Or the favorite tactic is to sift through the exit polling data, then target the methods most used by African Americans. We see it all the time, and the water carriers foist explanations pretending as if we don't see these actions and how they were similar to the segregationists back in the mid-20th century. "The literacy is simply there so we can ensure people can read. We want them to make an informed decision!"

In alot of these states, a concealed carry permit is considered valid ID for voting, but not a student ID. That's an obvious example of suppressing votes.

 

[Mountainmanbob]

and they will vote the way their professors tell them to.

A good reason to raise the voting age to 28.
M-Bob

 

[tall73]

The campaign itself is to be no longer than 40 days by law.

Now that is a law we need! So much of our politics becomes endless campaigning.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

Sounds like sour grapes that the Democrats had their tactic used against them.

...you mean even though Republicans have benefited more from gerrymandering than democrats by a ratio of 3:1?

 

[JackRT]

...you mean even though Republicans have benefited more from gerrymandering than democrats by a ratio of 3:1?

No matter who does it, it is a denial that the USA is a democratic republic.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

No matter who does it, it is a denial that the USA is a democratic republic.

Oh, I absolutely agree...neither side should be trying to subvert and circumnavigate an honest political system.

I was mainly just objecting to the "well both sides do it" myth...which is a popular one when the gerrymandering conversation is brought up. Both sides do it, but both sides don't do it equally.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

A good reason to raise the voting age to 28.
M-Bob

...and then when 28-35 year olds start consistently voting democrat, we'll see calls for "we should raise the age to 40".

Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, both sides have their tactics for trying to win elections.

The democrats like to use the appeal to "cool", "progressive", "modern way of thinking" sentiments of younger voters, republicans go with the approach of trying to suppress votes of demographic groups that don't tend to vote for them.

The key distinction is, one tactic is explicitly trying to deny taxpayers from participating in the process that they're helping to pay for.

If you're willing to strip away voting rights from 18-27 year olds, are you also willing to give them an opt-out from military service, income tax, and have them tried as youth in the cases of criminal infractions?