13NFL1-Compulsory Voting Page 79 of 163 www.victorybriefs.com COMPULSORY VOTING WOULD REDUCE THE INFLUENCE OF UNACCOUNTABLE POLITICAL ORGANIZATIO NS AND LIMIT MONEY’S IMPACT ON ELECTIONS OVERALL. HLR – 2007. The Case for Compulsory Voting in the United States Harvard Law Review, Vol. 121, No. 2 (Dec, 2007), pp. 591-612. In addition to the direct effect of compulsory voting on turnout, there are also several indirect benefits. First, compulsory voting would reduce the role of money in politics. n Political parties would not spend as much money on their get-out-the-vote efforts since high turnout would already be ensured and would be fairly inelastic. n Some of the get-out-the-vote money could be shifted to other forms of campaign spending, but not all of it. A significant amount of spending on getting out the vote comes from groups known ass (a reference to the tax code) and nonpartisan groups that are not subject to campaign finance laws. n These groups are limited in their abilities to campaign expressly in favor of candidates. n Presumably, these organizations would shift some funds from getting out the vote to issue ads (which are permissible, but the diminishing marginal effectiveness of those ads would limit this. With this implicit limit on spending, politicians and parties might focus somewhat lesson fundraising and be less beholden to donors. n
