Compulsory election participation with ‘none of the above’ option ‘is something worth looking at’

The First Minister is open to the idea of a change to the voting system that would mean it is compulsory to take part in elections, however with no requirement to vote for an individual or party, for example via a ‘none of the above’ option.

The topic was raised yesterday in First Minister Questions, with a further debate set for later today.

Ken Skates MS echoed comments from his colleagues around a ‘civic duty to vote’, adding “I also welcome the great progress that Welsh Government is making in strengthening our democracy, particularly by giving 16 and 17-year-olds the right to vote. This is in stark contrast to what’s happening across the border, with the UK Tories making it more difficult for people to vote. Indeed, around 14,000 people were refused the right to vote at recent English local elections. That is surely wrong, and it’s down to new methods of proving your identity.”

He asked, “First Minister, would you agree that compulsory voting could lead to mass participation like we’ve never seen before in terms of the democratic participation of the population of Wales? And has the Welsh Government considered a pilot or trial scheme in Wales?”

The First Minister Mark Drakeford replied, “I thank Ken Skates for those further points. He’s absolutely right that the policy of this Government, supported by others in this Chamber, is to encourage participation rather than to embark on a policy of voter suppression. We’ve seen the results from the English local elections, where thousands of people who wished to vote were denied the ability to vote because of measures that I think Jacob Rees-Mogg described as a simple attempt at gerrymandering. Well, it always was that, and that was firmly exposed by the Minister who was responsible for those measures while he was in office.

“Compulsory participation—that was an important distinction that Ken Skates made. Nobody is arguing—I’ve not heard people arguing—for it being compulsory for people to vote. It’s compulsory participation. You can turn up and right ‘none of the above’ on the ballot paper. It’s the act of participation as a sign of your civic duty that we are debating here.

“There’ll be a further opportunity for Members to discuss it again at greater length tomorrow, and the idea of a trial or a pilot is something that I think is worth looking at. If you were to have a change of this scale, you would want some local as well as international evidence to draw on, and I hope that that idea will be further developed in tomorrow afternoon’s debate.”

Voting in Australia is compulsory at state and federal levels of government. It is compulsory at local government level in Queensland, according to the Australian Electoral Commission, voter turnout at the 2019 federal election was nearly 92 per cent – miles ahead of similar UK votes. There are examples there where people have been fined 300 bucks for not voting.

(Top pic: Ken Skates MS – although he was on Zoom for this session earlier in the week)