Hacker News Reader

Look up the history of the Greens in Germany they went from insignificant nth contender in the 1980s to ruling party - simply by slowly gathered the votes of discontent from people fed up with the two main parties. Not voting is not a strategy; should be mandatory in my opinion.

View on HN

I agree that too many in the country don't exercise their right to vote, but I wouldn't take away their right to abstain. But, I mean, that could be solved by having an `abstain` option on the ballot itself.

Here in Australia it's mandatory to "vote" or you get a crappy little fine, few hundred, who cares. But here's the clever bit, voting just consists of showing up and giving your name so they can cross you off the list. You can take the ballot, and just shove it in the box blank. Perfectly legal "abstain" vote in a country where you have to vote.

don't make it mandatory. we're lucky some people don't vote

Reply on news.ycombinator.com