What If Everyone Had To Vote?
Is mandatory voting — the law in Australia, Belgium, Brazil and other countries — an idea we should steal to boost election turnout?
Roxanne Patel Shepelavy | a Philadelphia Citizen feature
Of all the Election Day traditions around the democratic world, the best may hail from our down-under brethren in Australia: “The Democracy Sausage.”
Since at least 2012 — when the term first cropped up — Aussies who show up to their polling places, are also offered the chance to buy a specialty hot dog, often supplied by and used as a fundraiser for local charities. The Australian Financial Review described the tradition thusly:
Buying and eating a sizzled sausage at the polling booth and, especially for younger voters, tweeting a photo of same have become acts of communal participation in the Australian nation almost as significant as filling out the ballot paper and a lot more fun; a jokey accompaniment to the serious act of choosing the government, celebrating what we all share no matter which side wins.
In 2019, some 2,000 democracy sausages made their way to voters’ bellies — but in truth, that number could be much, much higher given that 90 percent of registered Australians turn out to vote in federal elections. That is not (to be honest) due to the availability of barbecue. It’s because in Australia, voting is mandatory.
Since 1924, eligible Aussies who fail to cast a ballot can be fined from $20 (Australian) for a federal race to $79 (Australian) for a state race. Other countries or areas within countries, also mandate their citizens vote, with similar results and sometimes even harsher consequences: In Belgium (90 percent turnout), for example, citizens risk not being able to get government jobs if they fail to vote, according to the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA). Brazilians (80 percent), according to IDEA, may not get their salaries. In Peru (81 percent), failure to vote can mean losing access to public services.
But it’s not just the threat of punishment that brings people to the polls in Australia and these other places; it’s the fact that the law makes clear that voting is deemed a necessary part of living in the country, something people are supposed to do, and therefore, do.
In Philly, Not So Much …
That, clearly, is not the case here.
Consider: In the most consequential election in nearly a decade, last month’s Democratic mayoral primary, just 32 percent of Philadelphia’s 775,000 eligible voters cast a ballot, either at the polls or by mail. That means that (most likely) future Mayor Cherelle Parker made it onto the general election ballot — and subsequently into City Hall — with just 89,000 votes in a city of 1.6 million people. Not only is that not a mandate, it’s barely even a nod of approval.