Why Compulsory Voting is Not the Answer

Electoral turnout in the UK is low and uneven. This has led to renewed interest in compulsory voting, which has been advocated in recent reports from The Constitution Society, Labour Together, and the Institute for Public Policy Research. This article offers a critical perspective on these proposals. First, compelling eligible voters to vote will not produce a properly representative political system if eligibility rules are wrong to begin with. Therefore, if some people are denied voting rights, they will still be unrepresented, even under a compulsory voting system. Second, the UK's current system fails to reflect how people vote, both at national and constituency levels. This means that many people's votes are effectively ignored. Before we force people to vote, we should ensure that their votes will be meaningful.