Should Voting Be Made Compulsory During State & National Level Elections?

Replies

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  durga ch

  Voting is important. More the genuine conscious votes. lesser are fradulent votes casted.
  Voting is mandatory in many countries. The citizens have various options to execute thier voting rights, like voting through internet, or using different voting booth while travelling. In many countries, Not executing once voting rights is considered to be a serious offence by both gov and people.
  Strangley, during election period you dont get to find ads on television stating -" please vote!- its your right" , as voting is considered to be the thing what needs to be done, rather the campaigns focus on tarnishin other party's imagine by highlighting their broken promises and giving away newer promises ( this seem to be happening in all countries).
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  ISHAN TOPRE

  There are many voters amongst Illiterates voting consciously that amongst us who claim themselves Literates. Voting should be made compulsory in my opinion.
  The face of politics is not very good. So instead of saying politics is bad, we should try to change it with our votes.
  
  Sadly we have to "Vote the person who is less corrupt than the one who is more corrupt."
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  Aashish Joshi

  I don't think voting should me made compulsory. If we do that, we refuse the right of a person to abstain from voting. Suppose he doesn't believe in the political ideals of either of the candidates. What then? In 2002 French elections, people had the option to vote for Jacques Chirac or Jean-Marie or abstain!
  
  Making anything compulsory is not the democratic way of doing things. Instead, shouldn't we make people aware of their rights. If they don't use their right to vote, it is just as serious as giving up the right to free speech, right to privacy, etc.
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  Kaustubh Katdare

  Awareness isn't the problem here. Lethargy is.
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  Anil Jain

  A solid infrastructure backbone is required to take such steps.
  
  Giving you an example, last time to reach upto the voting booth it took me 3 Hrs; after crossing the NOT SO RELAXING delhi traffic. so, if mango people like you and me will get the good infrastructure so that they wont face lots of problems in voting, this will prefer to do that voting.
  
  Regarding compulsion. Personally, I am not in favour of that. Its for benefit for us only, and for doing something benefcial for me only, i shouldn't be mandate.
  
  -CB
• 

  silverscorpion

  mad_scientist

  I don't think voting should me made compulsory. If we do that, we refuse the right of a person to abstain from voting. Suppose he doesn't believe in the political ideals of either of the candidates. What then? In 2002 French elections, people had the option to vote for Jacques Chirac or Jean-Marie or abstain!
  
  Making anything compulsory is not the democratic way of doing things. Instead, shouldn't we make people aware of their rights. If they don't use their right to vote, it is just as serious as giving up the right to free speech, right to privacy, etc.

  If you want to abstain from voting, you should avail the option of 49-O. That will help to keep track of how many people dont like any candidate..
  I agree that the procedure to be followed for using 49-O is complex. It involves filling of some forms and more than anything, it makes everyone in the voting booth aware of your option.
  I think this method should be changed and using 49-O should also become confidential. Other than that, there's no problem in that..
  
  So, in effect, I do think that voting should be made compulsory. Nowadays, even in India, voting through internet is a possibility. Some minor elections in Karnataka have already used this, if I'm not wrong.
  So, making voting compulsory will ensure correct results and will accurately portray the public's opinion..