Mandatory Voting Does Not Guarantee an Increase in Voter Knowledge

Compulsory voting fails to increase political sophistication.

Peter Selb, Department of Politics and Management at the University of Konstanz, and Romain Lacha, Institute of Political Science, University of Zurich, 2009, The more, the better? Counterfactual evidence on the effect of compulsory voting on the consistency of party choice, p. 575. Gordon and Segura (1997) are among the few who have analysed the impact of CV on political sophistication. In their analysis of twelve Western European countries, including three in which voting is compulsory, they report a small, positive impact of CV on the level of political sophistication. However, the significant impact they find is due to a methodological artefact. Thus, while electoral participation may have positive 'fringe' effects, for example, on citizens' levels of external political efficacy (FinkeI1985) or their satisfaction with democracy (e.g., Engelen 2007), there is little evidence that participation makes citizens politically more sophisticated (Leighley 1991). Therefore, we must consider seriously the risk that CV brings citizens to the polls who would otherwise not vote, but will not increase their level of political sophistication. Consequently, we argue, their voting decisions will be more loosely related to their political preferences.

Compulsory voting does not guarantee an increase in voter knowledge nor reflects the true preferences of the mandated voter population.
Peter Selb, Department of Politics and Management at the University of Konstanz, and Romain Lacha, Institute of Political Science, University of Zurich, 2009, The more, the better? Counterfactual evidence on the effect of compulsory voting on the consistency of party choice, p. 591. Citizens who participate only because they are compelled to do so by CV also tend to be less aware of the differences between the various parties on the main issue dimensions. These differences between compelled and voluntary voters have important implications for the relationship between policy preferences, party choice and election outcomes. The party choices of citizens forced to vote by CV are less consistently related to their political preferences. This individual effect is strong (it is of similar size in both linguistic regions under study) and it is robust across various specifications of our model. At the aggregate level, CV increases the likelihood that the election outcome will not accurately reflect the distribution of voter preferences.

Australia's compulsory voting forces the elected to be chosen by the ignorant facet of society.
Peter Tucker, a researcher at the University of Tasmanias School of Government, October 19, 2005, "Voter Turnout, Voter Ignorance, and Compulsory Voting," Online Opinion - Australia's e-journal of

Social and Political Debate, http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=3822&page=1 (accessed 8/15/13) Putting all the above together, what influence does compulsory voting have on Australians? First, it puts us up with the leaders when it comes to voter turnout, but by no means way out in front. After taking high levels of non-registration and informal voting into account, voter participation in Australia only just exceeds OECD averages. And it does appear that, compared to many countries, Australian elections are characterised by higher levels of citizen engagement in politics, higher public awareness of policy options, and generally a belief by voters that their vote is important. But all this is relative. It is difficult to escape the conclusion that Australias elections are decided by at least a sizable portion of the electorate that does not know about political issues and does not care. They care about their duty to vote but do not necessarily go to the ballot box armed with much knowledge; but whether any voter in a modern democracy can ever have enough information to know all they need to know on all issues is highly unlikely. No one acting rationally could invest the time and effort needed to fully analyse all policy issues so, to an extent, all voters are politically ignorant.

Compulsory voting encourages random votes because people are forced to vote against their will
IDEA, 2012 (Compulsory Voting, http://www.idea.int/vt/compulsory_voting.cfm) Another consequence of mandatory voting is the possible high number of "random votes". Voters who are voting against their free will may check off a candidate at random, particularly the top candidate on the ballot. The voter does not care whom they vote for as long as the government is satisfied that they fulfilled their civic duty. What effect does this immeasureable category of random votes have on the legitimacy of the democratically elected government?

Compulsory Voting Does Not Increase Political Engagement

Empirically, compulsory voting does not increase political engagement some people just do not care about politics and their inclusion does not improve democracy
Lydia Bevege, Development Coordinator for the Australian Institute of Public Affairs, June 10, 2012 (Should voting be compulsory? Sun Herald, http://www.ipa.org.au/sectors/ideasliberty/news/2681/should-voting-be-compulsory-) The biggest myth in this debate is that Australia's system of compulsory voting is normal. Forcing our citizens to vote in every state and federal election is not normal. Virtually no other democracies in the world do it. Australia's compulsory voting laws are coercive and paternalistic, and they are out of step with the majority of developed countries, including the US, Britain, Canada and New Zealand. People who support our current system claim that we have to force citizens to vote otherwise they might lose interest in the political process. The reality is that, compulsory voting or not, some people just don't care much about politics. Australian democracy is not enhanced by forcing these people to express an opinion on parties and candidates they dislike.