Trade215, you say that "compulsory voting is a charade that rationalises an alleged mandate". You would prefer that we have voluntary voting so that we don't have to worry about any mandate at all and governments can just get on and do whatever they like. This is OK with you, because you think nobody really cares anyway.

You also say, "during election night coverage, they used to display the 'informal' vote. That sizeable minority that deliberately invalidates their ballot. They don't display that number any more... I suspect it is much higher than that now and is an embarrasment..".

As Kenny rightly points out, this is utter rubbish. If you care to follow his link you will find the informal voting rate at every federal election stretching back for years, and you will also find copious research papers and statistical analyses on the subject. The usual informal figure is around 5% of the national vote, but there was a small increase last election which is still under analysis.

You might also discover that there is no evidence that the majority of informal voters "deliberately invalidate their ballot". Most informal voting comes from mistakes on the ballot paper, in marking a full preferential vote. There are any number of reasons for this. High informal rates are usually recorded in non-english speaking areas, or amongst the elderly, for example.

Finally, you say this allegedly high informal voting rate "suggests that we are already a nation of voluntary voters" Er, no, for reasons referred to above. In fact, polling after every federal election shows a very high rate of support for compulsory voting, as mentioned in my previous posting.

Cheers Kenny for the homily to the ad hominem. Good stuff.

Grace, government does what it wants anyway, so yes that will do as a reason for voluntary voting.

l suspect that a lot more people than we care to admit have never enrolled to vote.

'In fact, polling after every federal election shows a very high rate of support for compulsory voting, as mentioned in my previous posting.'
Funny that... considering voting is compulsory.

As for the dismissal that what l say is rubbish, rather than logically addressing the arguemntative substance... its easier to dismiss. Agreed on that point Grace. So here is my surrender to the easy road of dismissal... if you think l speak rubbish then just ignore me. No need to engage the garbage man if you think he stinks.

Afterall, thinking hurts.
http://www.intrepidsoftware.com/fallacy/welcome.php

ps. to Grace and Kenny... l don't have much patience for name calling dismissals and judgemental invective. Why don't we just ignore each other? All the best.