13NFL1-Compulsory Voting
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PUBLIC OPINION
COMPULSORY VOTING IS POPULAR IN AUSTRALIA.
MacKerras and McAllister 99, M. Mackerras Department of Politics, University of NSW], I.
McAllister Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, "Compulsory voting, party stability, and electoral advantage in Australia, Electoral Studies 18 (1999) 217-233. By any standards, compulsory voting is popular among voters. Going back to theearliest opinion poll which asked voters views on the topic, conducted in never less than six out of every 10 voters have supported compulsory voting (Fig. Support for the system increased gradually during the s, sand speaking at 76 percent in a survey conducted in 1969. This gradual increase is probably are ection of the large number of voters who have grownup under the system,together with the absence of any political debate concerning its advantages or disadvantages. Support declined slightly in the sand early s, but in recent yearshas strengthened. Surveys which permit the respondents to register the strength oftheir opinion for or against the system indicate that voters who favour compulsoryvoting have stronger views than those who oppose it (McAllister and Makkai, 1993,28
–29). As Aitkin (1982, 31) notes, compulsory voting is in no sense seen as animposition on the electorate and resented by it
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