Voting is a duty, not a right, writes Richard Darlington, head of news at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).
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Richard Darlington is the head of news at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR)
I’ve long been in favour of copying Australia and making voting compulsory. But there’s a great new idea from Guy Lodge and Sarah Birtch that voting should be made compulsory for first-time voters in the first election in which you become eligible to vote. Over time, no one in Britain could say they have never voted.
Like jury service, voting should be one of those things we do as a democratic duty, rather than something we take for granted as one of our own rights. Even if you don’t buy that argument, there’s a very strong case for using compulsion to help redress the balance in the UK’s turnout inequality.
Turnout in this week’s elections is likely to be low – but the growing inequality in turnout is more worrying than falling turnout itself.
According to Ipsos-Mori, at the last general election, 76 per cent of voters from the top social class (AB) voted, whereas just 57 per cent of voters in the bottom social class (DE) did. This social-class gap has tripled since 1992.
The age-gap is even more striking. Just 44 per cent of 18-24 year olds voted in 2010, while 76 per cent of those aged over 65 turned out. Until ‘granny tax’, the grey vote had been sheltered from the manifesto busting “we’re all in this together” austerity. Why have manifesto pledges on tuition fees been broken but on free TV licenses, bus passes and winter fuel payments, they have been kept?
Mandatory participation in elections is more widespread than many realise. In approximately a quarter of the world’s democracies, including Belgium, Australia and much of South America, it is mandatory to attend the polls. Not all of these states actively enforce the legal requirement to turn out on election day, but among those that do, enforcement is usually underpinned by means of small fines.
Evidence (pdf) suggests there would be no overall partisan impact of such a move because parties would alter their appeals to reflect the changed composition of the electorate.
• Vote 2012: An introduction to the various elections on May 3rd 17 Mar 2012
Calls for compulsory voting are commonly met with the objection that it is a citizen’s right to choose not to vote. But first-time voters should be compelled only to turn out and should have a ‘none of the above’ option, much like the ‘re-open nominations’ option common place in student union ballots.
It’s time to take another look at compulsory voting and first-time voters are the best place to start.
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47 Responses to “Vote 2012: Voting is a duty, not a right”
Eric Greenwood
Why vote for any party when they are all corrupt and out to screw the voters. How can forcing people to vote be a democracy? So you are going to ask 18 year olds who have never experienced the rubbish that past governments have done. Is that because they think they will be too ignorant to question the government. All this compulsory voting nonsense will do is make people spoil the ballot.. Which is what i will do if it ever comes to compulsory voting. Add to that how will they know who voted will they have a list of voters and who they voted for.
Shall i vote for people who created the problem (Labour), or the People who have caused more problems (tories and lib dems), should i vote for an independent when you know they wont get in. The problem with voters not voting is the three party system doesnt listen to people, they follow the party line, rather than fighting for their constituencies. The answer would be to let MP’s vote how they want rather than obeying the party leaders.
Anonymous
Quite.
Why vote when politicians ignore their promises?
Why vote when politicians lie?
How about making it contempt, with similar fines for any politician caught lying?
Iain Hill
Absolute nonsense. It ignores one thing – the poor quality of what is on offer! Give us the right to cast +ve and -ve votes for as many parties as we choose, and there will be queues at the voting booths.
Anonymous
I have voted since 1969 council local now assembly national, but in 2010 I gave up when labour became the carbon copy of the Tories with welfare reforms.
Force me to vote and I would turn my vote into into a protest vote, and it would not be liberal Tory or labour
Patrick
The only reason you want to make voting compulsory is that those that currently don’t vote, if they were forced, would be more likely to vote for the left and not the right.