Obama Points Out a Country with Mandatory Voting: Marco Rubio and Conservative Wonks Push Back.
President Obama loves to lob these provocative speculations at the feet of the rabid right, it keeps their crazy bile flowing on slow news days. It also causes them to reveal their true selves occasionally. I don’t suspect that Obama himself is crazy enough to suspect that mandatory voting would be enacted here, but he was probably inspired by Oregon’s move the other day. It should be easy and painless for all eligible people to register to vote and for them to vote. Let’s hope more states head that direction in the future.
Also note that now that I’ve seen the video, I agree with Charles - he did not “suggest”, he merely pointed out that there are countries where voting is a mandatory civic duty. It was still the perfect cape and foil to wave at the GOP as this cuts at the core strategy of the modern Republican party, they can’t win with policy or popular vote, so they have to limit and create machinations to artificially deflate voter turnout. One of the ways to do that is to make people think that government isn’t effective, that government is somehow insidious, that government is against them - indeed all they have to do to suppress voting is to spread doubt and negativity, which is why you should vote every time no matter what.
The president appeared to endorse mandatory voting laws this week, and his comments have a few Constitution wonks scratching their heads.
In a speech before the City Club of Cleveland yesterday, Obama praised compulsory voting laws.
“In Australia and some other countries, there’s mandatory voting,” he said, as CNN reported. “It would be transformative if everybody voted. That would counteract money more than anything.”
More: Obama Suggests Mandatory Voting: Marco Rubio and Conservative Wonks Push Back.