A Case for Compulsory Voting

With few exceptions, local elected officials have far greater impact on the day-to-day quality of life for Hays County citizens than do state or national elected officials. Local elected officials administer development, issue permits, select road construction, decide on spending, set property taxes, and enforce laws


Note: This is a call for all good men and women to come to the aid of their country and county. VOTE! in the November 2 election. Early voting starts Monday, Oct. 18. Think of all the men and women in uniform who have fought, are fighting, and died to preserve our freedoms and right to vote. If that's not enough reason to get registered voters to the polls, what is? Mr. O'Dell makes a good argument for compulsory voting in our national, state and local elections. Maybe the threat of a stiff fine would be good medicine. At the same time, thanks should go to all those voters who, more often than not, recognize the importance of applying their right to vote.

Click on this link to the Hays County Elections Office for the complete schedule of early voting locations and times.

Send your comments and news tips to roundup.editor@gmail.com, to Mr. O'Dell at codell@austin.rr.com or click on the "comments" button at the bottom of the story

By Charles O'Dell, Ph.D.
Contributing Editor

I’m really tired of folks who speak of a patriotic duty for our sons and daughters to die while bringing democracy to countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, Viet Nam and Lebanon – and in the next breath say they have a right to skip our own elections. Such confused thinking is exactly how we came to develop imperialistic national policy, and why we sometimes have corrupt government officials, even here in Hays County.

Apathetic voters are an open invitation for government run by those who are financed by special interests, and officials who reward their special interests with lavish public projects. Public-interest minded individuals cannot compete financially with candidates well financed by special interests and who spend large sums fooling a few voters. If all eligible voters were required to vote then, as Abe Lincoln said, “You can’t fool all the people all the time.” One outcome of compulsory voting is that government becomes more open, efficient and honest. More importantly, voters become more involved in their own governance.

A case in point is the Australian democracy, one of more than twenty countries having some form of compulsory voting which requires citizens to register to vote and to go to their polling place or vote on Election Day. That country has had compulsory voting since 1924, and when the Wall Street financial crisis created chaos around the world, the Australian government had surplus funds it used to sail through the worldwide depression without creating huge public borrowing against their future, or suffering substantial long-term unemployment.

In Australia, governance is everyone’s business – not just the special interests. Elected officials are truly accountable to the full electorate, and not just to lobbyists and other specials interests. This has resulted in public policy that reflects the total voting population.

Governments instituted among men and women, and deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed requires active consent from the governed, or it becomes a government of special interests.

A brief study of Hays County voting over the past fourteen years helps to explain how special interests gained control of our local government because voters were/are apathetic about local governance.

An irrational thing happens in Hays County. A large majority of eligible voters register to vote, but only about half of them typically vote in the presidential elections (every four years) and fewer yet vote in local elections.

In the past four presidential elections 51.8 – 60.6 percent of the registered Hays county voters cast votes (see table below). In six of the off-year elections for local officials, less than 14 percent of the voters typically cast votes. In 2001, that number was only 5.5 percent of total registered voters eligible to vote. What an appalling indictment of voter apathy and an opportunity for special interests to finance their candidates.

With few exceptions, local elected officials have far greater impact on the day-to-day quality of life for Hays County citizens than do state or national elected officials. Local elected officials administer development, issue permits, select road construction, decide on spending, set property taxes, and enforce laws. Yet, fewer voters turn out for local elections than for national elections and this plays right into the hands of special interests.

With secret ballots, it's not really possible to prove who has or has not voted so this process could be more accurately called "compulsory turnout" because voters are required to show up at their polling place on Election Day.

Those of us who care about good governance and regularly vote in Hays County elections are left to face election campaigns financed with public funds and special interest funds. All of us suffer from the resulting bad behavior of those elected officials by so few voters.

Years of voter apathy in Hays County has even helped to create an industry for getting the public involved with their government. Can you imagine that? The upcoming November 5th event on, “From chaos to Collaboration: Raising the Bar in Public Engagement,” sponsored by the National Coalition on Dialogue and Deliberation and St. Edward’s University is an example. It “will bring people together to learn about: Quality Public Engagement,” and registration is only $85 for non-NCDD members.

In other words, citizens can pay $85 to learn that voting will put government back into the hands of its citizens.

Governments instituted among men, and deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed requires active consent from the governed, or it becomes a government of special interests. This is the best argument for compulsory voting.

If elected officials have a responsibility to the electorate, why doesn’t the electorate have a responsibility to exercise a right to vote that others fought and died for to protect?

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* Table 1 – Registered Voter Numbers and General Election Results For Hays County, Texas 1996 – 2010

Year/Reg. Voters/Voted /% Voted

1996/48,632/26,840/55.2%
1997/52,862/5,637/10.7%
1998/56,107/20,074/35.8%
1999/56,540/4,373/7.7%
2000/66,201/34,317/51.8%
2001/64,576/3,531/5.5%
2002/70,584/27,805/39.4%
2003/68,897/8,417/12.2%
2004/80,858/47,823/59.1%
2005/78,579/16,090/20.5%
2006/85,601/31,244/36.5%
2007/94,973/12,866/13.5%
2008/97,390/59,052/60.6%
2009/92,330/7,489/8.1%
2010*/93,224

* As of March 2010
Source: Hays County Elections Office