Why Compulsory Voting Enhance Democracy?

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In Bart Engelen’s article, Why Compulsory Voting Can Enhance Democracy, he explains many problems with voter turnout and participation in democratic governments and compulsory voting can help enhance the values of a democracy. Compulsory voting is where voters are obligated to vote in elections and if not they are subject to fines or penalties. Personally, I do not agree with the idea of compulsory voting, but I think throughout the article Engelen makes good points about the political participation of many individuals. According to worldwide statistics, voter turnout has dropped from 73 percent in the mid 1980s to 64 percent in the mid-1990s. Low voter turnout can cause threats to democracies and affects the values of a democracy. Turnout is a measure of citizen participation and people express their opinions and political preferences when they cast their votes each year. According to Engelen, “The more citizens abstain, the less representative the electoral result becomes” (24). By using compulsory voting laws, it can send a message to the people that each and every vote matters and help motivate them to participate more in the democratic system. …show more content…
Voting is an optional right granted to all citizens, if they choose not to vote in an election, that is their given right by the government and should not be punished for it. Sometimes individuals choose to vote in one election, but then not vote in the next one for many different reasons. Personally, I did not vote in this past election because I did not like either candidates, so I did not want to be apart of the election process to declare one of them president of our country. If I was forced to vote in the election, I probably would have wrote in my own choice. Compulsory voting may enhance democracy in a country, but it takes away from the person liberty granted to the
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