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Comment by XorNot | Hacker News Reader

The core of the problem is that you have to have mandatory voting. Sending someone a $30 fine because they didn't vote serves a very important function: it gets you an independent check that they were aware they didn't vote, or didn't turn up.

It's one of the core superpowers of the Australian electoral system: you can be fined for not voting, but also just about _any_ excuse will get you out of the fine - the fee itself is considered to be administrative and waived once you provide a valid reason.

But the system itself means that voter suppression is vastly more difficult: people are inclined to turn up. Or at least participate with the system. And the elections themselves then have a check system built in - if a whole district is getting fined, well now that's news - people complaining to media, sending letters etc.

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I'm not opposed to making voting mandatory, but making election day a national holiday should come first.

While I'm aware many (most? all?) polling locations allow for early voting, the reality is that many people wait for election day, and the combined hassle of having to work that day and deal with sometimes multi-hour waits (due to Republicans repeatedly closing and limiting polling locations) inevitably leads to some not voting.

Of course that also ignores many of the other issues with our electoral system that convince many they shouldn't bother voting (e.g., the electoral collect and heavy gerrymandering disenfranchising large swaths of people), but those are a larger and more complicated set of issues to address.

> I'm not opposed to making voting mandatory, but making election day a national holiday should come first.

How about having elections on Sundays instead of on Tuesdays?

Making election day a (normal) national holiday would not help. The type of service sector or emergency service job that makes it a problem to vote needs to work more on a national holiday, not less.

Making it a kind of super holiday where we mandate closure of everything from gas stations to non-emergency hospital services might help, but you're never getting the votes to make that change.

>just about _any_ excuse will get you out of the fine

Hilariously wrong, and if it were true it defeats the purpose of making it mandatory.

In my experience, ringing the AEC and saying "I thought I might have flu, and thought it best to avoid crowds" is enough to save AUD$50.

A huge difference between here in Oz and there in the USA _as I see it_ is that we are conditioned to vote, whilst you are conditioned to vote if you care enough. The fine here is just enough to be annoying, and given the streamlined process at most polling places (you still get queues) it's usually much less hassle to go to the local polling place (town hall or primary school usually) for half an hour. Given the existence of early polling and postal votes there's really not much excuse for _not_ voting unless you're religiously opposed - although I have avoided fines by calling ill-health.

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