A RIGHT–OR A CIVIC DUTY?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 259, 9 June 1944, Page 8

A RIGHT–OR A CIVIC DUTY?

Should You Lese Your Vote If You Do Not Use It? NE of the features of the Local Body Elections was the number of people who did not vote. Voting is of course not compulsory in New Zealand, though enrolment is, and this year the Local Body rolls were bigger than they have ever been before. It has therefore been suggested by some of our readers that voting as well as enrolment should be compulsory. We express no opinion ourselves, but have consulted sore of the authorities, and we reprint the first part of an article on the subject taken from the "Encyclopaedia Britannica":

os DISTURBING phenomenon in all electoral systems is the small percentage of actual voters (says the article in the Encylopaedia Britannica). In England the parliamentary vote is normally about 70% of its full strength; in France it is not much over 60%, in Germany it is often over 75%, and in the United States, where the word ‘non-voting’ was invented, presidential elections have had as great a proportion as 80% voting; but in other elections, State and local, there is a great falling off. The best extant study of non-voting is that by Professor H, Gosnell, of Chicago University, who found by actual research the following causes in the degree expressed in the Table (herewith). "We cannot say how far the percentages given in the Table fit conditions outside Chicago for that particular election, but the causes of non-voting as analysed and defined in this study are useful clues. Non-voting has caused considerable anxiety to the supporters of democracy and it is natural that reformers should have hit upon the idea of compulsory voting. Switzerland, Spain, Argentine, Bulgaria, Austria, New Zealand, Czechoslovakia, Holland, and Belgium have penalties for non-voters-all of them, with the exception of Holland and Czechoslovakia, dating from before the war. [The reference to New Zealand is wrong: there are penalties here for failing to enrol, not for failure

to vote.] The Australian» Commonwealth adopted a system in 1924. Belgium, which has enforced its law most stringently, began to compel voters as early as 1893 with the penalty of a fine of from one to three francs or a reprimand for the first omission to vote; for a second omission within six years a fine of from three to 25 francs; for a third omission within 10 years a_ similar penalty and the exhibition of the offender’s name on a placard outside the town hall for a month. The fourth omission in 15 years brings about a more serious punishment: similar fines and the removal of the elector’s name from the register for 10 years, during which time he may receive from the State no promotion, distinction, or nomination to public office in local or central government. Though the franchise has been greatly widened since 1893, the abstentions have never been higher than 7.5% (in 1896) and in 1900 were 6% and in 1912 only 4%. Altogether from 18991912 it needed 24,819 convictions of various degrees (about 10,000 being reprimands) to secure this result. The main question is: is it worth while spending the energy and money required to make voters exercise the vote? Is the vote, as some consider it, a right, or, as others, a civic duty?" °* "A Horse to Water" (COMPULSORY enrolment was introduced in New Zealand in 1924, but compulsory voting, although it became

law that year in Australia, was not here made an issue. A search of Hansard brought us only this brief reference in a debate on the Legislature Amendment Bill in which compulsory enrolment wes introduced. Sir William Hall-Jones: I would like to see compulsory voting. Sir Francis Bell: There is no compulsory voting provided for. You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink. Compulsory voting would be absurd, because a man has a perfect right to say, "I do not like ‘either of the candidates and I will not vote for either of them." There would be no freedom of life left if we did not have that to fall back on. Australia Remained Calm OR would it appear that there was much excitement in Australia over the adoption of compulsory voting. By consulting the General Assembly Library’s copies of the Hansard reports from the Australian Parliament, we found some mention of the fact after it had occurred, but we found no evidence of violent opposition. From some subsequent questions in the House it would not be rash to conclude that the measure went through almost without discussion. Towards the end of 1924 members were asking what steps would be taken to inform all the voters that they now had to vote, and one country member complained that most of his constituents were unaware of it. "Compulsion Not Necessary" FINALLY we sought two current (and necessarily local) opinions. A student of politics whose name we are not at liberty to use, but who was once in Parliament and now occupies an exalted position in another sphere, expressed himself. strongly against compulsion. "The elector," he says, "has the right to disagree with both sides. If he can’t support one or the other, he is entitled to abstain from voting. He also has the right-the moral right, I mean, though not at present the legal right-to abstain from enrolling as a voter. He has that right as an individual, and as a strong individualist I am against the curtailment of personal rights without clear and strong reasons. "In any case it is not necessary to resort to compulsion to make democracy work. What we need is a rational system of voting. The present system-if it can (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) be called a system: it is really just a muddle-depends not on how the electors vote but on how their votes are combined or split. If-we had Proportional Representation, \the only just system, the question of compulsion would not arise; every vote would be given its value and every voter his proper degree of influence." "But what if the electors don’t want Proportional Representation?" "Then of course they must take the consequences. But they have never had a chance to see what Proportional Representation would do for them. Most regrettably, I think, the Labour Party, which could have introduced the system, has now discarded it, and we saw the result the other day. Not a single Labour candidate gained a seat on the Wellington City Council, for example, though Proportional Representation would have

given Labour six seats on the votes re-corded-an influential minority notwithstanding the big majority polled by Labour’s' opponents. As things are, Labour has no seats at all and the Council is clearly not a representative body. But you would not improve matters if you fined or imprisoned people for not voting. You would get exactly the same result on a bigger scale." An Educational Angle ‘THE second opinion was from a man whose interest in education has always been sociological as well as cul-tural-F. L. Combs, who will perhaps allow us to call him a political as well as an educational reformer: "Historically, New Zealand owes a debt ‘to its underpaid, overburdened teachers which, such is casual human nature, is not ever likely to be honoured. But one thing the best teachers can only struggle painfully and inadequately to do in our under-manned (and womaned) and therefore miass-instruction classrooms: that is to cultivate that jewel of price, Initiative. "As a result, pupilage is in the main tutelage, and tutelage involves too much passive acceptance of guidance to make good democrats or, what is much the same thing, keen voters. The ideal democrat is the person who wants both to think and act in matters of collective concern. The desire to do this has been deadened in the classroom where decisions have for 50 years been to a too great extent handed down from above. The schools have therefore failed to lay one cornerstone of good citizenship, though the past decade has seen marked improvement in this ‘regard. "The other thing which hamstrings — democracy and makes democrats indifferent to their civic rights is the premium put upon self-seeking individualism by modern intense competition. To too great a degree the struggle for existence is a rivalry the reverse of cooperative, and mutual aid, which should be its counterpoise, gets a poor hearing. Innately mutual aid based upon the group instinct is just as strong as the egotism of acquisitiveness, but it gets off to a bad start, and to that extent there is failure to lay a true foundation of democracy. f "These two "causes of apathetic democracy directly imply their own remedies. Indirectly they imply opposition to compulsory voting as a means of making democracy stronger. External compulsion’ and democracy are as far asunder as true citizenship and Fascism." |

REASONS FOR NOT VOTING at the Chicago Mayoralty Election of April, 1923. Reasons for Not Voting All reasons $e é~ "sn Physical Difficulties Illness rage es S- ee Absence e Detained by helpless "member ‘of family Legal and Administrative Obstacles , Insufficient legal residence ase oe Fear of loss of business or wages ee Congestion at polls .. o« Poor location of polling booth es Fear of disclosure of age vs os Disbelief in Voting Disbelief in woman’s voting .. .s Objections of husband ve os Disgust with politics oe es Disgust with own party =e Belief that one vote counts for ‘nothing: . Belief that ballot box is corrupted oe Disbelief in all political action ee Inertia General indifference we Indifference to particular election ‘ Neglect: intended to vote but failed .. Ignorance or timidity regarding elections ’ Failure of party workers ie se No. 5,310 647 589 115 274 289 44 45 14 414 54 0 105 79 40 22 1,347 129 448 378 47 ~ : 0.9 Per Cent Distribution 100.0 12.1 11.1 2.2 5.2 5.5 0.8 0.8 0.3 78 1.0 4.3 2.0 1.5 0.7 0.4 25.4 2.5 8.4 7.1