Resolved: In a democracy, voting ought to be compulsory

A Final defense My opponent claims that I changed my advocacy and doing so costs me the debate. I am perplexed by this accusation. My initial argument was that compulsory voting increases voter turnout and ensures people’s votes are counted. This is still my argument. There is no shift in advocacy. It seems to me that my opponent is conflating compulsory voting with limiting who people can vote for. As I mentioned in my previous round; the purpose of compulsory voting is not to make people vote for someone they do not wish to vote for. Rather, it is to ensure that everyone’s vote is counted. Thus, as people have the ability in the status quo to write in whomever they want and do not have to select an option presented the same would be true under compulsory voting. Here Famous complains that this makes my proposed system all too similar to the status quo. Not so, as he mentioned in his opening argument there are many reasons why people currently don’t vote. Surely he does not view this list as comprehensive. Compulsory voting ensures that people’s votes are counted for so that we don’t have to guess as to why they did or did not vote. Even in the cases given, someone voting for “none of the above” clearly articulates the voter’s dissatisfaction whereas not voting leaves ambiguity. Con argues that placing an undecided or none of the above box on a ballot is poor conduct on my part as it is a late plan. Again, I find this perplexing, I am arguing for compulsory voting, not for limiting what can or cannot be voted for. These are entirely separate issues. What we have here seems to be a case where my opponent does not have a good response and seems to be rejecting my argument to technicality because he has no response to it otherwise. It seems to me that my opponent is trying to severely limit what I may or may not argue. If anything is poor conduct, I would say this is. My burden in this debate was to affirm that voting in a democracy ought to be compulsory. I have done this. Famous attempts to have his cake and eat it too. Consider he argued that people that are not interested in voting or undecided will simply check the box none of the above, only to later argue that bandwagoning is an issue. This should clearly demonstrate the lack of structure in my opponents’ criticisms. As my opponent concedes the point that bandwagoning is an issue with or without compulsory voting I will not address this further. This brings us to the asinine claim that compulsory voting is a violation of human rights. Here con misunderstands my objection. He claims that because the UN does not intervene in every violation of human rights that the UN’s lack of intervention on compulsory voting means nothing. First, I am not claiming that if compulsory voting was a violation (which it is not) that the U. N. would intervene. Rather, I argued that the U. N. does not view Compulsory voting as a violation. Take notice that my opponent has not cited an example contrary to this, he merely cites the U. N. website and erroneously applies a statement on slavery to compulsory voting. He claims this is a “minor violation. ” Again, you cannot have your cake and eat it too. Either compulsory voting is slavery and a severe violation of human rights or it is not. A Brief Summary My opponent’s argument’s are based on four key elements of a democracy. He argued that compulsory voting violates two of the four. First he argued that compulsory voting works contrary to the principle that “A political system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections;” I have shown this to be untrue and based on the semantics surrounding the word “free. ” Compulsory voting does not mean forcing people to vote for something they don’t want. Second he argued that Compulsory voting violates the key principle that A rule of law, in which the laws and procedures apply equally to all citizens. ” He claims this because he views compulsory voting was a violation of human rights and a type of slavery. I have shown this to be a ridiculous accusation. The fact that he even claims it to be a “minor” violation demonstrates how off base this contention has been. I have presented a case for compulsory voting. This case demonstrated that low voter turnout is detrimental to democracy. Compulsory voting has the impact of increasing voter turnout, thus ensuring “The active participation of the people, as citizens, in politics and civic life” which con claims is one of the key elements of a democracy. Thus we see the resolution is affirmed. Thanks for reading.