LETTER: Mandatory voting flaws

I have thought quite long and deeply about the repercussions of a mandatory voting system. 

I agree that people should be more engaged and informed and those people should vote, but do I really want the uninformed to vote.

With a poorly engaged and under informed mandatorily voter we open up the door to a populist demagogue and that is not good.

The concept of democracy and it success is not just voting. Our democracy is only about 10 per cent voting. The other 90 per cent is the important part – participation and awareness. 

Too much stress is paid on the process of voting. Voting might give us the illusion of full participation but it is only an illusion – much more participation is needed. 

We have too many distractions and we are allowing more that divert our attention from important things. There is way too much passive digital addiction in our lives. A society that does not engage or participate will go down a very bad road. The greatest threat to our freedom is elected people with zeal who really don’t understand, and a population that is not involved. 

The scary part is some think they understand.  I listened to a fellow named Leon Weiseltier and what he said hit the nail on the head: “we cannot be a country of intellectuals but we should not be a country of idiots.” Do we really want the idiots to vote? Like a whole lot in life, it isn’t quantity, it’s quality.

David Colledge
Brackendale