Why should the right to vote become a duty? It's our right to exercise our rights, not be forced to exercise them under threat of financial penalty.

Presumably non payment of this $170 fine will eventually lead to arrest and eventually incarceration - outrageous!

We supposedly live in a democracy, which in my mind means people should be free to do what they like as long as they don't inflict harm, loss or injury on anybody else.

So you don't believe what any of them were saying in their manifestos.

That means they are all the same, so how could you eliminate any of them?

If you have reasons not to vote Tory, Lib Dem or Labour it would be far easier to spot reasons not to vote UKIP.

If you are trying to suggest that UKIP didn't give you reasons to avoid them because you don't believe they will implement their dire and quite frankly bonkers domestic polices you have not been paying attention to how they behave in the EU parliament. Check out how they vote in there (yes they do vote despite wanting to leave the EU).

They have for example consistently voted against measures to close corporate tax avoidance loopholes.

So I am afraid giving them the benefit of the doubt that they won't be stupid was a bit short sighted.

Quote: TrinityIHC "That's a horrible idea, you can't force people to engage with politics if they don't want to. '" So you can force people to wear a seatbelt in a car or a crash helmet on a motorbike but you can't compel people to engage in the single most important decisions we make about the country we live in? Look at the voting pattern on page 10, it's pretty straighforward, the older you are the more likely you are to vote and the more well off you are the more likely to vote. The turnout amongst 18-24 year olds is truly pathetic, when I first got the vote I was proud to cast it. If I can find this out in 30 seconds and political strategists paid huge salaries are employed by all the main parties it's no surprise that policies that benefit or attract the votes of people who actually get of their bums and vote are prioritised. www.electoral-reform.org.uk/imag ... 93b87a.pdf

Quote: TrinityIHC "That's a horrible idea, you can't force people to engage with politics if they don't want to. '" So you can force people to wear a seatbelt in a car or a crash helmet on a motorbike but you can't compel people to engage in the single most important decisions we make about the country we live in? Look at the voting pattern on page 10, it's pretty straighforward, the older you are the more likely you are to vote and the more well off you are the more likely to vote. The turnout amongst 18-24 year olds is truly pathetic, when I first got the vote I was proud to cast it. If I can find this out in 30 seconds and political strategists paid huge salaries are employed by all the main parties it's no surprise that policies that benefit or attract the votes of people who actually get of their bums and vote are prioritised. www.electoral-reform.org.uk/imag ... 93b87a.pdf

Maybe so, but the others have proved themselves incompetent/ineffective. UKIP will no doubt turn out the same but I feel that someone else deserves a crack of the whip and if not them.. who?

Out of that list of parties that compete in my area, there are basically Labour, Tories and 2 small time national front type organisations, none of whom I will vote for. This leaves me with a straightforward choice between Ukip + Greens and I plumped for Ukip as the more likely to succeed out of those two.

Or alternatively count all the no-shows as spoiled votes in a "none of the above" style and include them in the results.

enforced voting?

no thanks

Aren't UKIP a small time National Front - type organisation though??.....

You wasn't joking when you said you hadn't read their manifesto, was you??....

I think you'll find there a lot closer to the party that you decided to cast your vote for.