Vote Or Else

Liberal Senator Mac Harb wants your vote. Not for himself, of course, but for his party.

Or you will pay. Oh, man, you will pay:

A $50 fine is not likely to convince committed non-voters to vote any more than parking tickets convince habitual offenders not to park in no parking zones.

Nor would compulsory voting force people those who are staunchly indifferent to political matters to take an interest in public affairs. If anything, it would likely lead to a major increase in Liberal votes by default, further cementing the party's hold on power and the perception of invulnerability that helped cause rapidly declining voter turnout to begin with.

But it could be a means to intimidate lower-class or immigrant voters into voting Liberal by falsely threatening them with criminal records and the consequences thereof.

Most of all, it does nothing to remedy the deficiencies in the electoral system itself that disproportionally distort seat counts as against votes cast.

Vote no to compulsory voting.