We have state and federal elections coming up on the same
day in October this year, so elections, politicians and politics are
unfortunately dominating the media at the moment. Everyone will be glad when it
is all over. Most Australians have little interest in politics and only vote
because the law makes it compulsory.
In Australia
it is compulsory by law to vote in elections. But the truth is that the law can
never be enforced, since the ballot is secret.
According to the law, on election day, all voters must attend
a polling place, have their names crossed off the list of voters, fill out the
ballot form and drop it into a sealed box through a slot in the top.
That is what the law requires, but in actual fact, no-one
can know what the individual voter puts on the ballot form, or even if anything
at all is put on it. There is nothing, apart from the thought of breaking the
law, to stop a voter putting a blank ballot form into the box.
Despite it being legally a crime, there are many people
who do not properly fill out the ballot form, or write (sometimes rude or
obscene) comments on it because they don’t want to bothered with doing it
properly or don’t care about politics, or for whatever reasons of their own.
There are also many ballot forms that are accidentally filled out incorrectly,
perhaps by not numbering the choices properly or missing out a number. All
these are, of course, counted as invalid votes and are discarded. The fact
there are so many invalidly filled out ballot forms at every election should
tell the lawmakers that most Australians don’t want to vote and are only
putting in an appearance because the law compels them to. Given their
democratic right to choose to vote or not, most of them would never turn up at
a polling place. Of course, since the ballot is secret, these people can never
be convicted of breaking the law. The law simply cannot be enforced.
The officials are unable to check whether a ballot form
is filled out correctly, or even at all, since what the voter puts on the
ballot form is secret and no-one’s business but his/her own. The law
specifically states that it is a secret ballot, so no official is allowed to
see and examine the form before it goes into the box. Once the ballot form goes
into the box the identity of the person cannot be determined since their name
does not appear on it nor is there any other identifying mark. Since the officials cannot check the ballot forms, there
is no way that the law can be enforced and a person arrested for not voting.
The only way to identify a non-voter is if their name is
not crossed off the voters’ list because they didn’t go to the polling place
and have it done. In that case a person is liable to a fine of A$20. Refusing to
pay the fine of A$20 may result in a court case where a fine of up to A$180,
plus costs, may be imposed. Being convicted in court also means the imposition
of a criminal record.
It is almost worth not voting and paying the A$20 fine.
One wouldn’t need to put oneself to the bother of going to the polling place
and queuing up to get one’s name crossed off. Also it would be a good way to
protest against compulsory voting, which takes away a person’s democratic right
to choose. It would also be a protest against all politicians and politics.
The drop in the number of people who voted if it were
made not compulsory would indicate to the politicians what ordinary people
think of them and their policies. They would have to make their policies of
interest and usefulness to the voters to get them to vote. That’s what the
politicians are afraid of, that they would have to put the voters’ interests
before their own. They wouldn’t like that. Not at all!
They would rather take away people’s right to choose
whether or not to vote by having a law that can’t be enforced.
Having a law that makes voting compulsory makes many
people into criminals just because they won’t, or can’t, fill out a form
properly, even though will never be caught and convicted in a court of law. Is
this democracy?
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