Michael McGuire: The US election farce just highlights the value of Australian-style compulsory voting
Australia has produced its share of political egomaniacs but there’s one key reason our politics will never sink as low as US politics, writes Michael McGuire – compulsory voting.
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- US presidential debate: Joe Biden tells Donald Trump to ‘shut up’
- Moderator of the first presidential debate responds to criticism of his performance
- How to get the most from your Advertiser digital subscription
There are a few reasons to believe future Australian elections won’t replicate the absolute bin fire that the US democracy has become.
High among them is the fervent hope that even Australian politics couldn’t ever produce someone as corrupt, amoral and flat-out nasty as Donald Trump.
And even if we did, you would hope they would be laughed off the debate stage, or at least be reduced to joining some low-grade, fringe outfit such as One Nation.
Sure, Australia has produced its share of egomaniacs: Kevin Rudd, Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull to name but three recent examples.
But even those guys had a toe in the pond called reality. Not a claim you could make of Trump.
Another reason to believe that Australian democracy will remain more robust, fair and free is that we have compulsory voting.
Occasionally, someone voices an opinion that Australia should revert to its pre-1924 position and embrace voluntary voting. Usually someone like the airheads who run that Institute of Public Affairs ‘think’ tank.
Of course, voting in Australia is voluntary. All you really have to do is turn up at the voting booth and have your name ticked off. Your time is your own after that. But given turnout is around 93 per cent at most Australian elections, it’s fair to assume most people take the next few steps and mark their ballot, even if it’s only to jot down a few obscene words.
In the narrow sense, it’s not too much to ask that a member of society pays attention for a couple of minutes every now and again to what is happening around them.
In a broader sense, the fact of compulsory voting means politicians are forced to campaign in a way that at least makes a pretence of including the entire community. If Australia was reduced to absolute voluntary voting, it’s fairly easy to predict who would fall out of the system.
It would be the young, the poor, the vulnerable already on the fringes of society.
Which in turn would skew how political parties run their campaigns. Instead of taking for granted that the overwhelming majority of Australians would vote, they would be forced to spend too much time, and therefore money, ensuring their base vote would turn out.
Political parties obviously create policies that appeal to their base, but this tendency would only accelerate under voluntary voting. It would also open the door further for donors to political parties to have more of a malign influence as politicians would be ever more desperate for campaign funds.
Just under 56 per cent of Americans voted in the 2016 US election. More Americans (117 million) opted not to exercise their democratic right to vote that year than voted for either Trump (63 million) or Hillary Clinton (65.8 million).
Voting is remarkably difficult in the US. Every state, every county in the US has its own rules and regulation about the where, when and how of voting and
some can be incredibly restrictive.
Active steps can be taken to suppress the vote. Polling booth numbers can be limited, staffing numbers kept down to make the act of voting as hard as possible. Queues can take hours to negotiate.
It’s axiomatic that the more people who vote, the more legitimate the result, which in itself adds credibility and stability to a government. If in any doubt about this, keep watching the US.