Should Voting Be Mandatory in the U.S.? Patch Poll

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President Obama suggested last week that voting should be mandatory, as it is in Australia.

Speaking at an event in Ohio Wednesday, the president said that “if everybody voted, then it would completely change the political map in this country,” and it would “counteract money more than anything.”

The Washington Post’s Max Ehrenfreund agreed mandatory voting “certainly would alter the political map – and likely in the president’s favor.” If such a requirement had been in place during the November mid-terms, Republican may not have scored landslide victories, he wrote.

He also disputed that required voting would take the money out of politics.

Some states are already taking steps to boost turnout at the polls. On Monday, Oregon approved automatic voter registration took effect. But experts said that’s not an automatic win for Democrats.

For example, in North Dakota – the only state that doesn’t require registration and allows voting with valid ID card – didn’t see a spike in participation in a highly competitive 2012 Senate race. Only 60 percent of the state’s eligible voters showed up.

Scott Shackford at Reason called mandatory voting “a violation of our civil rights.

“Casting a vote is speech,” he said. “It is showing support or opposition to a candidate or proposal. Making voting mandatory means voting is no longer a right. It’s an obligation. It’s forced speech.”

And U.S. News & World Report’s Susan Milligan said mandatory voting isn’t the answer to America’s embarrassing voter turnout.

A better tact, she said, is for courts and state legislatures to “put a stop to the laws which, by design or not, discourage voting, particularly among African-Americans or the poor.”

Tell Us:

• What do you think? Should voting be mandatory? Take the poll and add to the discussion in the comments.

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