{"id":39273,"date":"2020-03-21T09:04:33","date_gmt":"2020-03-21T16:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=39273"},"modified":"2020-03-21T09:04:33","modified_gmt":"2020-03-21T16:04:33","slug":"everyday-erinyes-209","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2020\/03\/21\/everyday-erinyes-209\/","title":{"rendered":"Everyday Erinyes #209"},"content":{"rendered":"

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto<\/span><\/strong>, Megaera<\/strong><\/span>, and Tisiphone<\/span><\/strong>. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”<\/p>\n

Last weekend, it seemed that every time I turned around Australia was being brought to my attention in some way. I told Lona about it, and she said perhaps Australia was trying to tell me something. I think she’s right … and I think it was this article I had been holding for a while.\u00a0 It must be time.
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What US election officials could learn from Australia about boosting voter turnout<\/h1>\n
Australian voters check in and cast their ballots in a September 2019 federal election.
\nAustralian Electoral Commission<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Steven Mulroy<\/a>, University of Memphis<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Not every country is plagued by rules that limit voters\u2019 participation in elections, as is common in the United States.<\/p>\n

In the past five years, restrictions on voting<\/a> and voter registration purges<\/a> have limited the number of Americans eligible to cast ballots.<\/p>\n

In addition, the U.S. is the only major democracy that still allows politicians to draw their own district lines, an often-criticized conflict of interest<\/a> in which public officials essentially pick their voters<\/a>, rather than the voters picking their officials. That computer-aided<\/a> gerrymandering of electoral districts<\/a> reduces the number of districts with competitive races, contributing to low voter turnout<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the fundamental problem, though, is that the system yields results the people don\u2019t actually want. Twice in the last two decades, U.S. voters chose a president<\/a>, George W. Bush and Donald Trump, who got fewer votes than his rival<\/a>, Al Gore and Hillary Clinton.<\/p>\n

All these problems are avoidable and don\u2019t happen in countries that have different voting laws. Perhaps the best example is Australia, a country which is culturally, demographically and socioeconomically similar to the U.S. In my book \u201cRethinking U.S. Election Law<\/a>,\u201d written while I lived and studied their system Down Under, I outline many of the ways Australia has solved voting quandaries that persist in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Mandatory voting, made easy<\/h2>\n
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Not voting in Australia? Prepare to part with this.<\/span>
\nScreenshot from Royal Bank of Australia<\/a>, CC BY-ND<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Australia\u2019s most strikingly different law requires voting. All Australians must register to vote<\/a> and actually cast a ballot<\/a>. Not voting means a small fine (AU$20<\/a>, or about US$14) will be imposed.<\/p>\n

Australians don\u2019t have to actually vote for a candidate: They can leave it blank, write in \u201cnone of the above\u201d or even draw a picture \u2013 but they do have to turn in a ballot. As a result, Australia enjoys voter registration and turnout rates over 90%<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Voting is easier in Australia than in the U.S.<\/a>. All voters can cast their ballots by mail, vote in person ahead of Election Day or show up to the polls on Election Day itself \u2013 which is always on a Saturday, when most people are off from work.<\/p>\n

A different way of counting<\/h2>\n
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Australian voters get to rank the candidates by order of preference.<\/span>
\nHshook\/Wikimedia Commons<\/a>, CC BY-SA<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Australia\u2019s vote-counting rules are also different in important ways.<\/p>\n

For its House elections, Australia uses what is called \u201cpreferential voting<\/a>,\u201d a form of ranked-choice voting<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Voters are allowed to rank their candidates in order of preference \u2013 1st, 2nd, 3rd and so on. If a candidate\u2019s first-choice votes add up to a majority of the overall ballots cast, that candidate wins, just like in any other system.<\/p>\n

If no one wins a majority of the votes cast, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated and their supporters\u2019 votes are redistributed according to these voters\u2019 second choices. This process of eliminating candidates and redistributing those candidates\u2019 supporters continues until one candidate has a majority.<\/p>\n