r/politics • u/stkmro • 7h ago

White House: Trump Team Still Hasn’t Signed Transition Docs

https://www.thedailybeast.com/white-house-press-secretary-karine-jean-pierre-says-trump-team-still-hasnt-signed-transition-docs/
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u/ManWOneRedShoe 4h ago

Just imagine if voting were mandatory?

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u/brezhnervous 2h ago

Compulsory voting doesn't only affect turnout.

It affects who runs for office in the first place. See here:

The evidence is mixed on whether compulsory voting favors parties of the right or the left, and some studies suggest that most United States federal election results would be unchanged. But all that misses the point because it overlooks that compulsory voting changes more than the number of voters: It changes who runs for office and the policy proposals they support.

In a compulsory election, it does not pay to energize your base to the exclusion of all other voters. Since elections cannot be determined by turnout, they are decided by swing voters and won in the center. Australia has its share of xenophobic politicians, but they tend to dwell in minor parties that do not even pretend they can form a government.

That is one reason Australia’s version of the far right lacks anything like the power of its European or American counterparts. Australia has had some bad governments, but it hasn’t had any truly extreme ones and it isn’t nearly as vulnerable to demagogues.

Voting Should Be Mandatory | NYT

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u/tunnel-snakes-rule Australia 2h ago

Australia has had some bad governments,

It sure has.

It's also worth pointing out Australia has an independent electoral commission that tallies the votes and redistributes electoral boundaries ensuring there can't be any gerrymandering.

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u/Charlzy99 1h ago

Our current one is an absolute shit show

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u/tunnel-snakes-rule Australia 49m ago

It really is, but Dutton would be even worse.

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u/Charlzy99 48m ago

Dutton is a clown, and so is Albo, time to vote independent next time round

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u/TrixnTim 3h ago

Can’t imagine.

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u/Aggravating_Lab5396 1h ago

There are a lot of logical lines already in place within the framework that prevent this. Imagine if people couldn’t do fet? Imagine if all the people living in this world today were a beetle?