voting to avoid sanction were the least interested and knowledgeable. As with the Belgian study, this merely demonstrates that compulsory voting would bring the otherwise less knowledgable to the polls. Finally,
Ballinger (2007) looked at the British and Australian evidence, concluding that Australian respondents
are no better-informed about political systems than British respondents. (4-5)
Sept/Oct 2013 Neg Counters Doesn’t Increase Knowledge foundationbriefs.com Page 84 of 104 Experimental tests on CV find no increase in knowledge or effort. RMF Loewen, Peter, Henry Milner, and Bruce Hicks. "Does Compulsory Voting Lead to More Informed and Engaged Citizens An Experimental Test" Canada Research Chair in Electoral Studies, University of Montreal (2008). Webb To test these hypotheses, we conducted an experiment among eligible-to-vote students at a Montreal CEGEP during the March 2007 provincial election. The logic of our experimental design is quite simple. We recruited a group of students to participate in a study about youth attitudes, consisting of two surveys administered approximately one-month apart, at either end of a provincial election campaign. All students who completed these surveys were eligible to receive $25 (CDN).2 However, to receive this money a randomly selected subset of the students were also required to vote in the provincial election Accordingly, we were left with two groups, one of which faced a financial disincentive if they chose not to vote, the other of which faced no such disincentive. By comparing differences between these two groups in political knowledge, media news consumption and reported discussion about politics, we are able to draw inferences about the effects of compulsory voting-like incentives on voters, especially first-time voters. (6)
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