It’s Time for Universal Voting
Requiring every citizen to vote would make our elections more inclusive and our democracy more legitimate. By E.J. Dionne Jr. and Miles Rapoport We are in the midst of a fierce battle over the fundamental question of who gets to have a say in the decisions that affect all of our lives. The appalling attempt at a coup against our democracy hangs over the discussion, but there is hand-to-hand combat taking place every day on the issue of voting rights. Supporters of full voting rights are fighting defensive battles to protect what we have now, and winning these battles is crucial. But we believe it is time to imagine the democracy we really want to have, to put a larger vision forward of a fully inclusive, fully participatory democracy. We propose one key element of that vision: universal voting. In our book, 100% Democracy: The Case for Universal Voting, we propose making voting a requirement for every citizen. The best way to guarantee voting as a right is to assert it, unequivocally, as a civic duty for every American. Enacting universal voting—federally or at the state or municipal levels—would establish a North Star for the democracy movement. It would put every specific battle over voting rights in the context of a fundamental question: Do we want to move toward 100 percent democracy or not? While universal voting has not been part of the public discussion about voting in this country, it is hardly a new or radical idea. Some two dozen democratic countries around the globe have some form of required voting now—countries as diverse as Australia, Uruguay, Belgium, Greece, Luxembourg, and Mexico. The new Chilean constitution, pending a popular vote, includes universal voting. And in the case of Australia, it has been in practice, successfully, for almost 100 years, since 1924. Few ideas have as ample a proof of concept.
Closer to home, we think there is a nearly exact analogy in jury duty. Serving on a jury is a requirement of citizenship that we accept as a matter of course, even if many grumble about being called. Universal jury service ensures that the pool of people called on to decide a person’s guilt or innocence
ref lects our population as a whole. The same should be true for voting. The decisions that affect our lives, and the people we elect to make them, should represent “the sum of us,” as author and advocate Heather McGhee has argued. So how does this work in Australia? The starting point is a strong, professional, properly funded national agency, the Australian Electoral Commission, whose responsibility is to get everyone on the voting rolls. As of this year, 96.8 percent of Australians were “enrolled,” the combined effort of the Federal Direct Enrolment and Update program, the political parties, and civil society organizations of all stripes. There are many options voters can use to cast ballots, including early voting, mail-in voting, and being able to vote at any polling place in one’s state. The civic culture is a celebratory one. Elections are on Saturday, and they fea-
AUGUST 2022 THE AMERICAN PROSPECT 25
