but a 2 party system is locked in because of #FPTP voting. 3rd parties can never dominate: duverger's law. a 3rd party vote is self-destruction of your own interests
#usa#americans: ranked choice is slowly creeping in, mostly spearheaded by #democrats. so who are you going to #vote for if you want robust 3rd parties?
@benroyce@Heliograph having a statuary Australian Electoral Commission overseeing elections and electorate boundary changes, preferential voting and compulsory voting all help. Parties that spear off to the left or the right eventually get pulled back to the centre. Of note, the conservative think tanks and politicians want to get rid of compulsory voting. This would then put the parties into how to mobilise their supporters to come out to vote mode rather than make a pitch about the merits of their case.
i heard in places like brazil with compulsory voting, people vote for joke candidates
so i thought, "does compulsory voting work? you can't force people to care." but i still like compulsory voting as superior, because americans who whine about politics then don't vote make me want to slam my face into a wall
@benroyce@Lats@Heliograph
I think compulsory voting “works” not because it forces people to vote but because it forces the government to provide an opportunity for everyone to be able to vote. I would prefer that an individual doesn’t give a donkey vote. But some people having donkey votes is a small price to pay for the benefit of mobile voting booths in places like nursing homes & hospitals, or ways for people in remote communities to vote.
@benroyce@Lats@Heliograph I never voted in the UK, but I'm now very glad to be living in Australia where I "have to" vote, and there is rank choice voting. Both seem to contribute to suppressing extremes.
@benroyce nope... not voting will get you a fine of ~$100 for not dragging your sorry arse to an election booth once every few years ... could be higher if you ask me @Lats
@luciedigitalni my friend here in NSW was abroad and got an almost hundred dollar fine... it got waived tho when he could proof he was out of the country on election day @benroyce@Lats
@Heliograph@benroyce@Lats the turnout at the 2023 NSW election was slightly lower than the turnout from enrolled NSW voters at the 2022 federal election, so I think the size of the fine has almost nothing to do with it, particularly as almost noone knows what the amount is anyway
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