Democrats Fight Voter ID While Latin America Is Ahead; Shouldn’t Voting Be Compulsory?

Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley revealed his latest policy proposal this week, calling for a constitutional amendment to affirmatively guarantee the right of adult citizens to vote. Such an amendment would restrict voter ID laws that have been embraced by Republican state legislatures. It would restore the right voting rights to felons (restricted in most states). It would return elements of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that were deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2013. Democratic primary rival Hillary Clinton has also proposed changes to voting laws. In June, she called for automatic voter registration of 18-year-old (unless they opt-out) and a national election system with 20 days of early voting.

Clinton and O'Malley’s proposed changes are part of an ongoing and fiercely partisan debate over voting rights. Progressives say that minorities and young people are disproportionately turned away from the polls or discouraged from registering thanks to voter ID requirements. On Wednesday, Texas’ tough voter ID law was struck down by a federal court, according to the AP . An appeal is expected.

“We remain confident that the courts will find justice for Texas voters and ultimately strike down this racist and discriminatory law,” Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa said in a statement.

Conservatives have championed requirements that voters present valid IDs when voting saying that they’re key to preventing voter fraud. Same goes for their opposition to early voting: hypothetically, people can vote twice. Both sides have a chunk of the electorate at stake. White Republican voters are more likely to register to vote and more likely to show up on election day. And the Texas voter law struck down on Wednesday has some apparently partisan quirks: gun licenses, while college IDs are not. Young people and minorities are more likely to vote Democrat, but often don’t make it to the polls. Democrats are also more likely to vote early or by absentee ballot.

Proponents of Clinton and O’Malley’s proposals can point to low voter turnout. Less than half of registered voters casting ballots in midterm elections on average. Yet even when barriers to voting are removed, few Americans make it to the polls. In the 2012 presidential election, no state had more than a 70 percent voter turnout -- and that’s just counting registered voters. When you include unregistered voting-age citizens, the numbers are even worse. According to the American Presidency Project, no more than 60 percent of Americans have voted in a national election since 1968. In the 2014 midterm election, only one-third of adult citizens made it to the polls.In 2012, States with the highest turnout among registered voters tended to have early voting, high white populations and/or highly contested races, according to post-election observations by the Christian Science Monitor . Some of the most populous states -- California, Texas, New York -- saw turnout rates of 55 percent or less in the last presidential election.

One possible reason? Voting is not compulsory in the U.S. Unlike paying taxes or serving on juries, Americans are not legally expected to vote. Something is clearly amiss. No matter how much Democrats blame voter ID laws for barriers to voting, the biggest barrier to democracy in America is probably eligible voters themselves.

“Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves—and the only way they could do that is by not voting at all,” Franklin Delano Roosevelt said ahead of a 1944 election, adding “Every man and every woman in this Nation—regardless of party—who have the right to register and to vote, and the opportunity to register and to vote, have also the sacred obligation to register and to vote. For the free and secret ballot is the real keystone of our American Constitutional system.”

Only 55 percent of voting-age citizens cast a ballot in that 1944 election. In 2008, the percentage was a mere 57 despite record turnout.

Compulsory Voting:

While American presidential candidates are putting voting rights on the agenda for 2016, other countries have dealt with the turnout problem by treating voting as an obligation. A Guardian article from 2005 counted 31 of these countries. We thought it interesting that 11 of these were located in Latin America, including Brazil, Mexico, Bolivia, and others. Only 20 percent of Americans support compulsory voting, according to a 2004 poll by ABC news, and the number hadn’t fluctuated in decades. It’s not a politically popular idea (kind of like O’Malley’s constitutional amendment). But it is intellectually interesting.

In Brazil, around 80 percent of the voting age population makes it to the polls. Even in mid-term (parliamentary) elections, at least 65 percent of voters have cast a ballot since the 1980s, when the country’s dictatorship ended. Why so many voters? Brazil levies a fine against those who don’t vote. It’s under $5, but paying it can take hours, probably more than voting itself. According the the WSJ , people who don’t pay the fine risk losing their CPF -- the Brazilian equivalent of a Social Security Number. Apathy against candidates persists. In the 2014 election, 13 percent of ballots were invalid, suggesting that many voters were unhappy with their candidates.

By comparison, Canadians void ballots less than 2 percent of the time; it’s usually a mistake. Even discounting the voided ballots, Brazilians select candidates around percentage points more than Americans.

In Mexico, there’s no “punishment” for not voting, even though it’s required by law . Perhaps as a result, voting rates are only slightly higher than in the U.S. -- around 60 percent for most presidential elections. In Bolivia, voting has been mandatory for over 50 years, but voting rates have only risen in the past few decades, up to 90 percent in 2014 from a low of 50 percent in 1993. Few ballots are voided, supporting the idea that the law can’t substitute for excitement, like first-ever indigenous candidate Evo Morales.

There may be no silver bullet for bringing Americans into the democratic process. O’Malley and Clinton’s proposals may expand the electorate if implemented. Voter ID laws may protect it -- though there’s little evidence the privilege is being abused. Even if adult citizens were required to march into a ballot box, many would not vote for a candidate. Yet if America exercises only between one third and one half of its democratic muscle, it’s still worth exploring new ideas. Have a novel one? Please share it in the comments.