Non-Voter Escape! (Edited3)

I noted the early figures showing a lot (many millions) of USA non-voters. That is in addition to so many millions of USA citizens unregistered!

It will be some time before the final actual vote numbers from the big 2024 election over there are known. Interest will soon fade. Eventually their Census people will have the data - unless it gets shut down!

Here in Australia? Do we have non-voters? Yes, we do. Possibly we also have people who refuse to enrol. Both groups here face court action if they openly persist. Nonetheless, we have non-voters who avoid the fine because they report to the system as having voted. How many? No data. The number is part of the informal count.** 

How? Enrolled citizens attend, have their name marked off (of course), and then put their ballot paper in the ballot box, unmarked. That is my "blank voter". (The same applies to any blank returned postal ballot papers.) I do not know if the US has citizens doing this "pretend voting" - seems unlikely. 

Do blank voters break one of our laws? I do not know and it is very unlikely to be tested in court, unless they want it to be. Their identity, as of every voter here, is secret. Voter anonymity is strongly maintained.

The non (and the "blank voter") may feel that they are avoiding participation in putting x, y, or z in charge, that they abstain? It is not possible in a democracy to have no effect.* (The blank vote, etc, actually denies support to the opponent or gives indirect support to whoever has most formal votes, regardless of who that is. Otherwise the blank vote alters the margin of the winner.)

As a polling official, I disliked blank used ballot papers! I preferred to see marked informals - eg,  "1" repeated, so that there are two, or more, ones, and the vote could not be added to any candidate. Sad? Doubtless, but unlikely to cause doubt!

*Are some adult citizens of a representative democracy able to be convinced in their own minds that elections are nothing to do with them, and be clear in conscience about it? (No one asked to be born in a representative democracy, and moving elsewhere [where?] is not a viable option for most.)

The responsibility here for selecting those who govern lies with all adult citizens. There is no real escape. It is our privilege and responsibility.

In Australia a lot is done to make it easier for the elector to vote. Voter convenience is considered important. Definitely not "take or or leave it". An obligation, made as painless as possible. And it is LAW. 

(I recognise that it sometimes comes down to the elector trying to find the "least worse option"; just the same, a choice must be made.) 

It is also our sad reality that our systems are now captured by the political parties. Perhaps it was less so in earlier years?

(In more recent times there has been some increase in numbers of "independent" elected members. I think that probably every election has independent candidates. We even lived through a Parliament when three independent members held the "balance of power" in the Australian House of Representatives. That is, neither major party side of politics had enough members elected to control decisions of Parliament.)

I want to remember that people, including many very ordinary people, who had no say at all, suffered and struggled hard and very long to gain "the vote". For example, see the story of the suffragettes - they really, really, wanted the suffrage!

Pay to all what is due them: taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due (Romans 13:7 NRSVUE).^

He (Jesus) said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's” (Luke 20:25 ESV)^

A much earlier post on elections: https://jesussaviour4unme.blogspot.com/2018/10/vote-g4.html

**INFORMALS and Totals: I suppose every one of our elections has informal ballot papers in the scrutiny. So there are two totals in the ballot paper account:

• "Total votes" (aggregated all candidates), and the somewhat larger 
• "Total voters" (all ballot papers issued for voter to use, ie, total votes + informals).
• unused, ie, unissued, ballot papers are added to total voters to equal the (accounting) grand total of the ballot papers supply received at the polling place, or District, or Division.
• total names marked on the electoral roll should equal "total voters" from the ballot paper account 

^PS 27/11/24 In this era we have seen very fierce resistance to control or rule of the individual by the "State". Civil disobedience has been, and is, a reality.  There surely are issues and grievances bringing up loud protests and fierce uprisings. Is conscience involved? I am working on a separate post, TBA. 

May you be blessed by God

Allen Hampton 

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NRSVUE) are from the New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission.