Optional voting

I have long considered that one of the strengths of Australia's system was compulsory voting - true, I've considered the option of allowing people to have a "none of the above" option (which has been tried in the past, and seems to have largely been abandoned on the basis of cost of repeat elections - I wrote about that somewhere, but cannot find the link), but it always seemed much better to me than the insanity of the US system, or the simple-minded flaws of the UK's first past the post system.

However, yesterday a caller to talk back radio made a good case on this. He pointed out that many people are completely out of touch with politics - many he talked to didn't even know there was a scandal around the National's deputy. His point was these clueless and irresponsible cretins make their decisions solely on the spin that they see during an election campaign - and hence, in part, the idiotic election results we see.

It's actually a interesting point, given our current political disasters. I'm still inclined towards compulsory voting, but maybe optional voting would be OK if it also came with "none of the above" on ballot papers, and an understanding that those who choose not to vote surrender their right to have an opinion.

Hmm . . . nah, stay with what we have.