Abstract
This chapter examines the correlates of support for compulsory voting in Australia and their implications for both electoral politics and democratic processes more broadly. The level of support for compulsory voting among Australians is high, having remained above 64 per cent since the first survey in 1967, and stabilizing at around the 70 per cent since 1987. Furthermore, the percentage of Australians expressing a willingness to vote voluntarily also remains high, at around 80 per cent in 2019. There is also a decrease in willingness to vote voluntarily among women since 2007, and growing support for compulsory voting and willingness to vote voluntarily among youngest voters—aged between 18 and 24—over the past ten years. Finally, the data reveals that no one party gains an obvious electoral advantage from compulsory voting in Australia.
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Notes
- 1.
With the caveat that voting in some local government elections is voluntary, and that it was not until 1962 that all Indigenous Australians were granted the right to vote at national elections.
- 2.
In 2019, voter turnout in Australia was 92 per cent of all registered voters, but only 81% of adults living in Australia (including non-citizens). There are two major reasons for this difference: first, not all eligible adults enrol to vote, and second, many adult Australian residents are not eligible to enrol or to vote (i.e. any person living in Australia without citizenship status).
- 3.
The 2010 federal election also saw former Labor leader Mark Latham publicly campaign for voters to cast a blank vote, rather than express a preference for either Labor (led by Gillard) or Liberal (led by Tony Abbott).
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Sheppard, J. (2021). Public Opinion and Compulsory Voting in Australia. In: Bonotti, M., Strangio, P. (eds) A Century of Compulsory Voting in Australia. Elections, Voting, Technology. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4025-1_5
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