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As it happens, 68 per cent is roughly the turnout in the past federal election, while 98 per cent is not far off the turnout in Australian elections. You may already have guessed the reason: in Canada voting is voluntary, while in Australia it’s mandatory. That mandatory voting is associated with higher turnouts is not much in dispute. In 1922, the last Australian election before voting was made mandatory, turnout was just 58 per cent. The election following it shot up to more than 90 per cent, where it has remained ever since. Across the 20-odd other countries in which voting is mandatory, it is reckoned to have boosted turnout by 10 to 15 percentage points.

By compelling the free-riders to vote, we’re arguably improving the quality of the electorate

Mandatory voting is the other big issue the parliamentary electoral reform committee has been asked to examine. It would do well, then, to keep the success of the long-form census in mind. Because the case for mandatory voting is essentially the case for the mandatory census. The 68 per cent who showed up to vote in the past election — it has been as low as 59 per cent — are not a representative sample of the population. Who votes, and who does not, are very different.

How do they differ? Demographic factors certainly enter into it: voters tend to be older, richer and whiter than non-voters. But the biggest single factor is the efforts of the various parties to motivate sympathetic voters to get to the polls. Elections used to be decided by the “swing voters,” without strong ties to any party. Increasingly in recent elections turnout has been the decisive factor: elections often turn on which party can better “get out the vote” amongst its base of committed supporters.