pne: A picture of a plush toy, halfway between a duck and a platypus, with a green body and a yellow bill and feet. (Default)
Philip Newton ([personal profile] pne) wrote2005-09-30 06:59 am
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I read that Belgian voters who repeatedly fail to vote in elections may subject to disenfranchising.

I wonder whether they consider this a punishment, though—after all, if they appear not to consider their vote important, why would they worry if they lose it? The act seems a little pointless to me.

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[identity profile] relax-sven.livejournal.com 2005-09-30 11:52 am (UTC)(link)
Well it is so that if a voter here in Belgium refuses to vote, he/she gets a fine and a day or so in jail (well I think it is like this... either way something that looks like this :p). I haven't heard of the disenfranchising though...

[identity profile] darth-spacey.livejournal.com 2005-09-30 10:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Forcing people to vote (Saddam) = wrong.
Encouraging people to vote (Greece, apparently) = kinda okay.
Encouraging people to vote intelligently on the issues = if fricken only.

[identity profile] elgrande.livejournal.com 2005-10-01 04:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Possibly there are people who always keep "procrastinating" it and think if they don't vote this time, they'll vote again in the next election.

But the Singaporean system seems even weirder. According to wikipedia (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahlpflicht), people who do not vote there are deleted from the electoral register until they give a reason why they want to vote again.
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