Should we be encouraging voting?

[Global Laziness]

Yes, I think we should encourage voting to some extent, but far more importantly, we should be promoting the idea of political involvement. Rather than instituting compulsory voting or something similar, we should be encouraging citizens to get to know their politicians and the political process in their country so that they can make an educated vote. If people want to abstain because they legitimately believe that none of the candidates deserve office, then so be it. In such situations, I generally take the "lesser of two evils" approach, but nevertheless.

I'd [...] make passing a quiz about the policies of the last election's major candidates necessary for passing high-school.

Unfortunately, this would only be a temporary solution. It doesn't stop people from getting disconnected over time. Hell, I barely remember anything from high school and I only graduated a year and a half ago.

[William Wallace]

I'd say make voting compulsory, and make passing a quiz about the policies of the last election's major candidates necessary for passing high-school.

Except for mandatory voting, we have that already; it's called political science. And am I the only one that finds it strange to use coercion to strengthen a democratic institution like free elections?

The idea, ideally, would be to make voting as painless as possible. I admit to do that we'd have to change a lot of things about the voting process. But in the end, I think compulsory voting would do more harm than good. Candidates would have to appeal to everyday Americans rather than just wing-nuts, and also I think as a result people would be more active in other ways.  

So you're against compulsory voting?

[Perpetual Change]

Oops. That was meant to say less. Basically, though, if I were the Czar of the world, it'd involve more than just telling everyone they had to get to polls or they were going to get fined. But before I'd ever even put that on the table I'd rather try other things just to raise awareness/incentive to vote.

[Global Laziness]

Oops. That was meant to say less. Basically, though, if I were the Czar of the world, it'd involve more than just telling everyone they had to get to polls or they were going to get fined. But before I'd ever even put that on the table I'd rather try other things just to raise awareness/incentive to vote.

But the thing is, a government shouldn't need to give the citizens an incentive to vote. The incentive is, vote for who you thing will do the best job running your country (or province, state, city, etc.). You don't want to bribe them to vote.

[El Barto]

I was thinking about the whole informed electorate thing.  What difference would it make?  If  you could somehow arrange for only the smartest 4% to be able to vote, would it really matter when their big decision is choosing between John McCain and Obama?  So maybe the primaries went differently and they have Hillary and Romney to choose from.  Would that make any difference?  The problems go far beyond just voter stupidity.  The entire system needs to be scrapped.

[rumborak]

Replaced with what?

rumborak

[William Wallace]

Replaced with what?

rumborak

With the "Council of Democratic Electors" staffed by, of course, everybody from PR. We're all well read and have differing viewpoints; I think we could do what's best for everybody. But seriously, I think it's going to take an economic depression or another major war that actually impacts daily life to get people to pay attention again. Otherwise, people can remain disengaged without experiencing much consequence. Mind you, I don't want to see either of those things happen.

[ReaPsTA]

I think Heinlein might have been right.  In Starship Troopers, voting is earned.

To earn that right, you have to complete a minimum of two years federal service.  Federal service jobs are at best demanding (Navy, Mobile Infantry, inter-stellar mining work) and at worse extremely life threatening (being a guinea pig for new drugs and equipment).  By completing a two year term, you have proven you are willing to risk your life to vote and that you have the capacity to put the interests of others above yourself.

EVERYONE can join the federal service as long as you're mentally capable of understanding the oath.  Non-voting legal residents enjoy every single right as citizens except voting.

I can't think of a better way to determine "worthiness" of voting.  And if we aren't going to do this, at least ban homeless people and dependents from voting.  If you're not working then you're not contributing and thus you don't get to have a say.  EVERYTHING ELSE in life works this way.

[GuineaPig]

Being a citizen of the country is all that should be required to vote.

[Perpetual Change]

With the "Council of Democratic Electors" staffed by, of course, everybody from PR. We're all well read and have differing viewpoints; I think we could do what's best for everybody.

I hereby motion that we commission Dream Theater to write our new national anthem. Also, let's replace the portraits of the founders on the dollar bill with the avatars of the DTF moderating staff. Even though millah's not a mod anymore, I also think he at least deserves a commemorative coin.

[William Wallace]

With the "Council of Democratic Electors" staffed by, of course, everybody from PR. We're all well read and have differing viewpoints; I think we could do what's best for everybody.

I hereby motion that we commission Dream Theater to write our new national anthem. Also, let's replace the portraits of the founders on the dollar bill with the avatars of the DTF moderating staff. Even though millah's not a mod anymore, I also think he at least deserves a commemorative coin.

For every dream theater song you can sing or play on an instrument, you get a tax credit.

[Perpetual Change]

Instead of being constitutionally sound, we'll just encourage Supreme Court justices to make sure their opinions are full of DT nuggets.

[ack44]

I purposefully didn't vote in the mid-terms because I knew that I didn't know what the issues were, even though all my relatives wanted me to vote Republican. "But abortion and gay marriage!" "Lol nope."