COMPULSORY VOTING.

Evening Star, Issue 18033, 29 July 1922, Page 4

COMPULSORY VOTING.

The affection—faint as yet, wo may hops —which the Prime Minister has developed for the idea of compulsory voting, may he regarded as one of tho vagaries of a mi»d whose opinions’ are generally grounded on some basis of common sense. Greater men have been subject to such aberrations. ,Dr Johnston had a strange faith in the efficacy of always starting or _©n-ding a journey with tho same foot foremost, and completing it in the same number of steps, to keep him from misfortune ; he believed in the Cook Lane ghost. Mr Massey’s belief in compulsory voting would appear on the face of at to belong to the same class of convictions that are apart from reason, yet it must have been formed by some process of reasoning, 'because it as not one that he has always held. Tho Prime Minister has admitted that this is one of tho matters, like Proportional Representation, on which he has changed his mind. Apparently he is not yet a complete convert to the system which lias been advocated by Mr Potter, the member for Eoskill, but ha inclines to it. His statement in the House this week was that he “ had a good deal of sympathy with it.” He “thought wo should cleanse the rolls to commence with, and then every person entitled to vote should have his or her name on the roll, and having got it there should record -a vote.” ; In so far as this stands for conversion to- 1 compulsory voting, the Prime Minister’s change of opinion can only be regarded as an example of first thoughts being better than second ones. It would bo easy enough to pass a law that everyone come to adult years should bo compelled to vole, and as easy to enforce penalties against at least a proportion of these who should abstain from the polling booths. Rut, a vote is tho vainest thing unless it records an opinion, and no law could give any value to tho vpto of a man who might ibo too stupid, or too devoid of any sense of his responsibility as a citizen, to know one candidate from another, or the opinions which distinguish one political party from another. No law could prevent him from making his vote informal if ho wore forced to make an appearance of giving it; and the votes of ignorance and, indifference, df they were all obtainable by compulsion, would not help to a truer expression of tho country’s judgment; they would only make its expression more imperfect. Tho Gallics and tho slackers whom Mr Potter would ropo in do their best service to tho community when they disfranchise themselves. Their number might bo increased, and not diminished, if voting were made compulsory instead of a privilege. It would be an inconsistency, also, to force them to vote, while infants, criminals, and lunatics arc prohibited. Something may be said for compulsory registration. That would keep tho rolls in a -proper state, and for that purpose it has been advocated by the Parliamentary licensing Committee. Unaccompanied (by compulsory voting, however, it would have a danger which threatens to bo prohibitive, If all the names of people who never vote were upon the rolls, impersonation would bo easier than it is in present conditions, and that is not a thing to bo encouraged.