Opinion: Mandatory voting should be implemented to increase voter turnout

Shortly after the 2014 elections, Senator Bernie Sanders admonished the country, saying “Americans should be embarrassed,” according to the Guardian.

In a 2014 Op-Ed for the Guardian, Sanders wrote that the low voter turnout “was an international disgrace.”

Indeed, it is a disgrace. The fact that only about half of the American electorate takes the time to go and vote for their representatives and leaders is astonishing.

A democracy is built upon the idea of representing the voices of every American citizen. Not half of the citizens. Every single one. Therefore, it is not surprising when the validity of America as a viable democracy is called into question.

Many have proposed solutions to increase voter turnout: offering a small reward for voting, allowing for more flexibility in the times that the polls are open, digitalizing the voting process. However, the most simple yet effective solution lies in the idea of mandatory voting.

The concept of mandatory voting requires eligible citizens to vote on Election Day and penalizes them if they do not. Some may argue that voting is infeasible for many as they have a job and would not be allowed to take a day off.

However, the implementation of this mandatory voting bill could include requiring all employers to compensate workers for the time spent voting. Furthermore, if jury duty is mandatory for every American citizen, why is voting not? Take a minute and try to answer that question.

Mandatory voting will ensure a more representative voting body and thereby a better-elected representative.

According to EconoFact, a non-partisan publication designed to bring key facts and incisive analysis to the national debate on economic and social policies, there was a 48% voter participation rate for families in the lowest income category in 2016, which was a bit more than half of the 86% rate for families in the highest income category.

This same pattern can be found between when you examine voter turnout based on race.

According to a poll conducted by The Atlantic and the Public Religion Research Institute, 9% of black respondents and 9% of Hispanic respondents indicated that, in the last election, they, or someone in their household, were told that they lacked the proper identification to vote. Just 3% of whites said the same. 10% of black respondents and 11% of Hispanic respondents reported that they were incorrectly told that they weren’t listed on voter rolls, as opposed to 5% of white respondents.

In all, across just about every issue identified as a common barrier to voting, black and Hispanic respondents were twice as likely, or more, to have experienced those barriers as white respondents.

Mandatory voting would undeniably lessen this margin and make it so that the officials we elect and the ballot measures we pass are more representatives of the larger population.

In collaboration with these mandatory voting laws, we must recognize how voter suppression is fundamentally a repetition of the poll taxes and literacy tests we say during the era of Jim Crow. The lack of voter representation we see in America has drawn criticism and threatened America’s standing as a democracy.

According to the Democracy Index compiled by the UK-based Economic Intelligence Unit, America is categorized as a flawed democracy. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said, “American democracy is supposed to be the paradigm for the rest of the world, and it no longer is.” Indeed, it no longer is.

A common argument many make is that mandatory voting violates the first amendment as it denies the ideals of free speech, which includes the right to silence.

However, this argument is easily debunked because mandatory voting does not force someone to pick a candidate. Voters can leave the ballots blank and not support any candidate.

The only obligation they have is to show up to the polls. This can, in turn, also help more effectively track protest votes to gauge voter dissatisfaction as there will be a larger and more representative population.

In America, the right to vote for many marginalized populations took decades upon decades of protest and struggle. We have a responsibility and moral obligation to honor those that dedicated their lives to that struggle. Mandatory voting will ensure that we make true on this responsibility.