That's very good question. Why don't we
make voting easier? I think we should and
there are a number of ways of doing that.
You could have automatic voter
registration, you could have same-day
voter registration, you could have voting
on weekend, or you could declare Election
Day a national holiday. So there are a
number of different devices that would
reduce the barriers to voting and the
costs of voting and I favor most of them.
There are a lot of reasons why we don't
make voting easier but we have to focus
on the question of who's the we? States
differ widely and a lot of those
differences reflect state and local
politics. Some states are more
comfortable with an enlarged pool of
voters than others. Some political
parties and sometimes a conspiracy
between the two political parties will
be more comfortable with a controlled
pool of electorate voters made up of
known quantities or familiar groups. A
lot of lot of politicians are afraid of
expanding the electorate because they
don't know who will enter. I'm actually
in a small minority of political
scientists who believe that we ought to
make voting compulsory.
I base my conclusion on the experience
of Australia, which instituted compulsory
voting almost a century ago and raised
voting participation in the space of a
single election from 59%
to 91%, it's been above ninety percent
ever since and the legislation is backed
by a fine the equivalent then and now
the minor traffic ticket.
I think, I think, elections where nearly
everyone participates are more fully
representative Democratic. We should
declare Election Day a national holiday.
If people are afraid of the economic
consequences of yet another day away
from work, election day could be on a
weekend. There's no compelling reason not
to put it on the weekend. I suppose
they're a handful of people who, for
religious reasons, would object to either
a Saturday or Sunday and special
arrangements can be made to accommodate
them. But one way or another
an entire day should set aside from work
for elections. There are a few scattered
instances of voter fraud.
But the evidence that I've studied
suggests that it is a very minor almost
trivial problem. It's not something we
should be worried about
and it's not something against which we
should pass special laws which have the
effect of making voting more difficult
particularly for poor and elderly voters.
I don't think it's worth it I don't
think there's any evidence to suggest
that we should. I believe that both voter
ID laws and the failure to set aside a
full day away from work for national
elections do tend to reduce voter
participation for no good reason and for
that reason I am opposed to voter ID
laws and in favor of the National
Election Day holiday.
The electoral college is the system in the
American Constitution that determines
how presidential elections are conducted...
