Re:Did You Vote? Now Your Friends May Know (and Nag You)
by tomjen3 on Tuesday November 06, 2018 @12:24PM
(#18392975)
Dane here, we consistently get 85+ with no compulsory voting.
Yes we have universal registration, but we also have a system where more than one party can win, which I think is much more important. People can be motivated to overcome challenges if they have a good reason.
Universal, automative voter registration. Like very other mature democracy. Vox's "Why America needs automatic voter registration" segment is a good primer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd5Qs0fc_I0
Competitive races. Because then people feel their vote matters. This means fair redistricting, probably based on measure of wasted votes.
Threatening people's right to vote sometimes motivates participation. I don't recommend such exteme measures.
Early evidence is that free postage on mail ballots boost turnout ~4.5%. We'll see.
Mail balloting weakened the culture of voting. Seeing your neighbors and family vote increases the peer pressure. Like the top OC, there have been a few weak efforts to use social media as a substitute.
Put motivating cultural wedge issues on the ballot. Homophobia, corporate welfare, war on drugs for the right. Anything pro human or fact based for the left.