• Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    Just wondering, how is mandatory voting enforced? I assume vote cops don’t show up at your door… What if you turn in a ballot with no choice marked?

    • MusketeerX@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      You receive a penalty notice in the mail and have to pay a fine. Similar to a traffic infringement or parking fine.

      All elections are held on a weekend and voting booths are everywhere, to make it a little easier for everyone to vote.

      You can choose to not mark the ballot, no one would know. As long as you turn up to a booth and get your name marked off, then you are considered to have voted.

      As a result, voter turnout is generally over 90%.

    • hangonasecond@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      You are allowed to cast an empty ballot, or write in a candidate who isn’t running. You just have to participate. When you go, you get marked off an electoral roll. Those people who don’t show up get a fine in the mail of something like a couple of hundred dollars. Not bad in isolation but this applies to state, federal and local elections so about 3 times in a 3-5 year period, for something which takes all of 15 minutes out of your day.

      • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        I very much prefer California then, which mails every registered voter a return-postage-paid ballot and provides locked ballot boxes if you prefer, as well as having in-person voting places. I mail mine in, at least a week early, and if I didn’t get the text notifications I could walk in and do provisional. My spouse is basically bedbound but can vote from home.

        • hangonasecond@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          I think we can request to vote by post although I’m not really sure. We can vote early in person though, and many people do

          • psud@aussie.zone
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            3 months ago

            We can. And pre-poll votes. We don’t need to mail forms to everyone as most people can and will make it to a polling place on the day.

            We can also vote out of state or from outside the country at an embassy or High Commission

    • Zikeji@programming.dev
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      4 months ago

      Not sure how it is there, but in a few areas you basically lose your right to vote of you don’t. Which is fair motivation.

      • Seraph@fedia.io
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        4 months ago

        Looks like they mostly pay fines. So let’s figure out approximately how much money it will make and sell it to the Republicans as a money making venture!