Title: President Obama Supports Mandatory Voting, And He’s Wrong To Do So
Headings: 
President Obama Supports Mandatory Voting, And He’s Wrong To Do So
President Obama thinks that it would be a good idea if everyone were forced to vote. He's wrong, and his idea is most likely unconstitutional.
About Doug Mataconis

Content: The idea has also been floated by political pundits and “serious” journalists every time they lament what is supposedly wrong with American politics in general, and voter turnout in particular. As with most such solutions, though, the idea of mandatory voting seems to create far more problems than it would supposedly solve. Before we can even discuss the supposed voter turnout “problem,” it must be recognized that there are any umber of reasons why people don’t vote, either in general or in a particular election. Presidential elections tend to get higher voter turnout than any other year, for example, and that’s largely because these are seen as being the most “important” elections. Mid-term elections get lower turnout than Presidential elections historically, but still tend to get higher turnout than off year elections. Finally, primary elections tend to get the lowest turnout of all, in no small part because many states limit primary participation to voters registered as members of a particular political party. On some level, it’s perfectly understandable that people are more likely to vote in Presidential elections than other elections, and that off year elections and primaries tend to get lower turnout. While this obviously has some kind of impact on the results of the election I am not sure that it constitutes a “problem.” If people choose not to vote in a given election, then that should be their choice. Forcing them to go to the polls isn’t going to accomplish anything.