What does?
Class conscious organizing activity at whatever level you're at.
Best, Mike B)
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Voting is compulsory in Australia at all federal elections for all eligible persons. Compulsory voting thus ensures the highest possible turnout of electors. Compulsory voting is not unique to Australia and is used in countries such as Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Greece, Italy and Singapore.
Compulsory enrolment and compulsory voting were first introduced in Queensland, where a non-Labor government hoped that it would discourage apathy among Australian electors there. Compulsory enrolment was written into the Commonwealth Electoral Act in 1911 but compulsory voting was not introduced until 1924 by a National Country Party government.
The term compulsory voting is in fact a misnomer. The Australian electoral Acts enforce compulsory attendance, with names checked on the electoral roll. In a democracy, no electoral law can enforce a compulsory vote because any such attempt would breach the principle of the secret ballot.
Political parties in Australia gain major benefits from compulsory voting. In most democratic nations without compulsory voting, parties firstly have to convince electors to turn out to vote and convince them that it is to their benefit if they do and secondly they have to convince voters to vote for them. The first task is done for the political parties in Australia by compulsory attendance legislation, so they can concentrate on winning support.
This graph indicates voter turnout for the last five elections.
full: http://rubens.anu.edu.au/student.projects/elections/project/process/pvote.html
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