Flipboard<p>Australia voted last week for a Labor majority — and when we say “Australia voted,” we mean that. Before the election, <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://journa.host/@taniel" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>taniel</span></a></span> of <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://journa.host/@bolts" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>bolts</span></a></span> talked to politics professor Judith Brett about the country’s compulsory voting law — its history, how it’s evolved, and whether it leads to better engagement as well as turnout. “Look, the fines that one pays are pretty minimal; you get a letter, and you’ve got to give a reason why you didn’t vote,” says Brett. “I don’t think the fine is the reason people vote. I think they vote because everybody votes. It’s the political culture around voting … What we know from research is, if you don’t have compulsory voting, the people least likely to vote are poorer people, and people from new migrant groups, and often the young. I think it means that there’s more of an egalitarian pressure on our politicians, and I think we end up with more egalitarian policies.” </p><p><a href="https://boltsmag.org/compulsory-voting-australia-election/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">boltsmag.org/compulsory-voting</span><span class="invisible">-australia-election/</span></a></p><p><a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/Newstodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Newstodon</span></a> <a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/NewstodonFriday" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NewstodonFriday</span></a> <a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/FollowFriday" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>FollowFriday</span></a> <a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/Australia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Australia</span></a> <a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/AustraliaElection" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>AustraliaElection</span></a> <a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/Voting" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Voting</span></a> <a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/Elections" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Elections</span></a> <a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/Law" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Law</span></a></p>