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Do you think the penalty works better than a positive incentive? i.e. if you got $5 to vote or a 1 in 100 chance of $1000? Also, was the penalty introduced in order to increase turnout? Is there any data on how it affected it, including among which demographics?

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Normally people give a higher weight to a loss than the equivalent positive gain so I think fines should work better than a cash payment.

We have had the fine system since the 1920s so it is really hard to know how it affects the political process. One thing it does do is get the turn out to >95% (we also get a fine if we don’t register too).

One of the big positives is it takes away the decision of voting or not - it is just one of those things like paying your taxes that you have to do.

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