Go Vote or Else! 

By: Jim Brown

Why don’t more people show up to vote on Election Day? In elections all over America, fewer voters are turning out at the polls than ever before. The New York Times ran an op-ed piece decrying this national trend, and suggesting that voting be mandatory, just like jury duty. So how big is the problem, and how important is it to force citizens to vote? 

My home state of Louisiana recently held what traditionally is the largest election in any four-year period to pick congressional candidates and many local public offices. Turnout was a miserable 17%. Of course we should encourage all Americans to vote. Participatory democracy is a hall mark of our system of government. 

In a recent op-ed article, William Galston with the Brookings Institution argues what he feels to be a number of advantages to mandatory voting. He points out that thirty-one countries have some form of mandatory voting, including two thirds of Latin American nations and a cross section of other democracies that include Australia.