The UK wants to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in the next general election in 2029. 5 experts give their verdicts on if Australia should do the same.

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[–] dracs@programming.dev 9 points 6 days ago (6 children)

I'd quite like to see the voting age lowered to 16. I'd lean towards it being made compulsory over allowing voluntary voting in Australia.

As the one expert mentioned we could use some more education on voting in the curriculum to help prepare students for it. Teaching them how prefferential voting works, how to research candidates, etc.

[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 11 points 6 days ago (4 children)

Compulsory voting (along with preferential voting, a proportional senate and a permanent, nonpartisan electoral commission) is one of the success stories of Australian democracy. (Making showing up to vote — or formally lodging a reasonable excuse — compulsory makes declining to vote a deliberate act, and prevents anyone from winning merely by riling up a base of hardliners and counting on apathy on the other side, as happens often in the US.) Ditching it would be a retrograde step for Australian democracy.

[–] womjunru@lemmy.cafe 2 points 6 days ago

US here, I’d love compulsory voting… and preferential voting.

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