Registering the Poor to Vote is Un-American

[Wjames]

what happens if you don't want to vote because they're all twats, which with politicians is often the case?
in the present day and age only those with financial backing get voted in. even obama who got financed by donations had rich people setting it all up so it could happen. we haven't changed so much from the borgias. i would think forcing people to vote would generate a few fuck it votes where they just vote for a nice face hehe.

I don't know about Australia, but in Canada, you can go and "decline" to vote. As soon as they hand you your ballot, you just give it back and say you decline to vote, and they put it in a separate box which is then counted at the end of the election. I did that last provincial election because all of the candidates sucked. Of course, not very many people are aware they can do this (or are too lazy to do so; I'd rather show up and let them know I'm willing to vote for someone I actually believe in), and we don't have compulsory voting.

We do have one of the dumbest electoral systems possible though. It's a "first past the post" system, meaning you only vote for the candidate in your riding who will then represent you in the house of commons; the candidate with the most votes in your riding wins the seat, and the party with the most seats wins the election. This means that a party can get say 15 % of the popular vote, yet end up with no representation in government because they don't win the election in any individual riding. It's meant to allow the candidate "representing" your riding to speak for your riding, but in reality all the candidates just vote along party lines.

This leads to people voting for the better (in their mind) of the typically two parties in their riding which actually have a chance of winning the seat, instead of who they actually believe in voting for. We have 4 well known parties in Canada (and a separatist party in Quebec), and it pretty much destroys the smallest one (the Green (environmental) party). It's infuriating...

Also, don't you guys know that in America money is considered "speech". Obviously poor people shouldn't be able to vote...