How to fix America in one simple step

The 2012 election season was dominated by polarized, hateful, theocratic and purely ignorant comments. There was no undertone of compromise, and if the last four years are any indication, compromise will remain absent for quite some time. So what do we as a country do? How do we moderate the factions of our government and foster compromise within the halls of Congress? America can do better, and needs to. But how?

What if there was a way to force candidates to stop mudslinging as a way to scare their party base into voting and instead focus on having better policies than the opposition? What if there was a way to increase the importance of swing moderate voters and bring candidates away from dangerously extreme parties that are unable to compromise?

Mandatory voting might just be what we need.

As Australia, Singapore, Argentina and other countries have shown us, even with a small fine—or tax, to get it past the Supreme Court—the voter turnout could increase from the paltry 57.5 percent of voters this year to upwards of 80 percent within one year. The problem is, most (not all) of the 42.5 percent of non-voters didn’t abstain because they had no preferred candidate, but because they didn’t think their vote would matter, the polling station was too far away or out of sheer laziness.

So, if these 40 percent of people were required to vote, the focus of elections would shift significantly—from getting a candidate’s own political party out to vote, to getting the vote of swing voters or even of moderates from the opposing party. This would not only reverse the increasing polarization of political parties, but would also lead to more moderate presidents, senators and congressmen being elected and to a system fostering compromise and bipartisanship.

America can once again be a nation of compromise, political efficiency and of representation from all the people, not just the extreme groups passionate enough to consistently vote. The American political system needs to be improved, and mandatory voting is a large stepping stone on the way to an efficient, representative and bipartisan government.

Chris Dee

Pratt ’16