There was a time — and not that long ago, to be honest — when Tom Kelly’s column on Monday (’Why I believe voting should be made compulsory for all’) would have had me harumphing and subjecting anyone within earshot to a lecture on dictatorship.
In fairness, it doesn’t take much to get me harumphing and lecturing, particularly if someone’s column involves Taylor Swift or Joe Lycett. (NB to Brian Feeney: don’t even think about going there!)
Anyway, back to compulsory voting. My long-held view was that forcing people to vote violated what I regarded as a fundamental right: the right to choose not to vote because you regarded all of the candidates and parties as absolutely useless. And I didn’t buy into the argument that spoiling your vote — even if it involved scatological comments beside the names of every candidate on the ballot paper — served any purpose; because it wouldn’t have any impact on the outcome of the election. A wasted exercise in other words. Even writing ‘none of the above’ wouldn’t make any difference.
But in the past few years, as I have watched politics here and elsewhere galloping to hell in a handcart, I have had a rethink about changes to our voting system. Generally speaking, voting is a good thing. It underpins democracy.
Yet what if your vote means nothing, which seems, far too often, to be the case under the first-past-the-post system (FPTP)? What if you’re stuck in a constituency — and the numbers used to be quite high — in which the same party clings on for decades? What is the point of compulsory voting if your choices remain as restricted as before?
So, here are a few suggestions: and please feel free to send an email/letter to the editor, adding suggestions of your own (obviously, don’t feel so free if all you want to do is rubbish me).
Yes, make voting compulsory, but with the proviso that a compulsory ‘none of the above’ option comes into play. If some of the candidates don’t get as many votes as ‘none of the above’ does, then they should be eliminated as each count goes along.
And for that to work we need to replace FPTP with some form of PR. Politics — especially the electoral side of it — has to be made easier for smaller, less-well-funded parties and organisations. The reality is that too many potential parties and independents have been priced out of elections, and also kept out of elections in the first place by a FPTP system which deliberately favours big parties with big machines.
As I have watched politics here and elsewhere galloping to hell in a handcart, I have had a rethink about changes to our voting system... Yes, make voting compulsory, but with the proviso that a compulsory ‘none of the above’ option comes into play... And for that to work we need to replace FPTP with some form of PR
The irony, of course, is that most of the single winners in a FPTP election don’t, in fact, have a mandate which represents a majority of the electorate in the constituency. When we hear the complaints about voices and views not being heard it’s often from people who believe that it’s the political/electoral system which goes out of its way to prevent them from being heard.
I’m also increasingly of the view that the voting age should be reduced to 16. Let’s face it, we allow 17-year-olds to drive cars and pick university and career options, so why shouldn’t we allow them to vote when they’re 16? Maybe, just maybe, by embracing them and taking them seriously they, in turn, will begin to fully understand the impact that government has on every aspect of their lives. Instead of parties just talking about ‘the future we want for the next generation’ they should actually allow that generation to cast a vote on their own futures?
It was Richard Nixon who popularised the term ‘silent majority.’ Over the years we have seen the switch from that phrase to newer ones about ignored and marginalised people, who believe the ‘establishment’ has squeezed them out. FPTP systems do that, as indeed do some forms of PR.
So, let’s create structures which ensure no-one is squeezed out; because that, I think, is one of the best ways of addressing their needs and preventing then from being exploited by disrupters and destructors on both the left and right.
Voting is the keystone of democracy and accountable government. But if it is to be compulsory rather than voluntary — which I now think it should be — then it must be accompanied by a raft of other changes which include, rather than continue to exclude.
