As the entire world waits with genuine confusion and no small amount of trepidation for the US midterms and ask huge questions like “will the Democrats reclaim the House, if not the Senate?”, “Will the populace repudiate Trump or double down?” and “Why do they have a weird bonus election in the middle of the term anyway?”, Australians might look at the claim that this could have the greatest turnout of any midterm in recent political history and go “…by which they’re predicting that maybe half of the people that could vote will actually do so? How the hell does that work?”
And you probably know that the US has voluntary voting, as do most of the planet’s democracies, and that Australia is one of the weird nations that oblige its citizens to participate in their democracy, even if they’re really, REALLY hungover.
Neat! Now, go decide who represents your electorate!
The election which elevated Trump enjoyed the participation of “about 56.9 percent of the voting-eligible population” on Election Day, according to Vox. This meant that 27 per cent of Americans actually voted for the current president (and yes, slightly more did vote for Hilary Clinton).
Similarly the Brexit vote – the decision for Britain to leave the European Union – was decided by 37 per cent of eligible voters: just over half of those who bothered to show up and cast a ballot.
Analysis of the result concluded that young people, in particular, failed to show up and vote. And that’s a lousy way to run a democracy.
Shhh.
That said, voting turnout in Australia is actually on the decline. The 2016 election saw the lowest voter turnout ever at just under 91 per cent, and the Wentworth by election’s turnout was a pitiful 78 per cent.
However, Australia’s decision to amend the Commonwealth Electoral Act in 1924 is possibly the smartest thing our nation has done in terms of maintaining a vaguely representative system of government.
And it’s not because of abstract ideas like that voting is a civic duty in a functional democracy, or because sausage sizzles are fun, or because voluntary voting is correlated with less participation by marginalised groups (as the Netherlands discovered after abandoning compulsory voting in 1970) – although all those things are good reasons.
It’s because since the law forces all Australians to participate, it also obliges the state to make it possible for everyone to participate.
For example: Australian elections are held on a Saturday specifically because everyone needs to attend a booth and that’s the least inconvenient day for the largest amount of people.
And sure, Saturday’s aren’t great for everyone – Jewish folks, for example, for whom it is the Sabbath. But you know what day is not convenient for anyone? Tuesday, the day the US holds their elections. Who the hell has a Tuesday off?
Also, you know how every US election has horror stories about polling booths being closed down in black-or-Latino-majority neighbourhoods, or moved inconveniently far from public transport, or deliberately understaffed in order to create artificially long waiting times?
OH GOD SHUT UP BRIAN YOU’RE PART OF THE PROBLEM.
That stuff doesn’t happen in Australia because we have the Australian Electoral Commission: an independent statutory authority which runs our elections, and which is therefore also tasked with the job of ensuring that all citizens have access to polls.
They’re the people that make sure that people can vote, even if they’re in regional Northern Territory or Western Australia and therefore thousands of kilometres from a polling booth, or in hospital on Election Day, or offshore serving in an armed forces capacity.
The AEC also redraws electorate boundaries so that they contain around about the same number of people. Because it’s done by the AEC the government has no direct hand in the matter, unlike in the US where politically-motivated committees often redraw electorate lines to benefit their party.
(Deliberately redrawing electorates to benefit a party is called “gerrymandering”, which – and this is both true and amazing – is a term invented when Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry drew ridiculously-shaped electoral boundaries to best benefit his party in Boston, one of which supposedly resembled a salamander. Amazing.)
So, United States, there are a few things you should be doing to make your elections more transparent and geared toward participation.
I mean, what would happen if only certain demographics in electorally-key areas were able to cast ballots in an opaque system susceptible to party manipulation and outside influence?
Why, can you imagine?