There is to much of a chance that the system would be corrupted. All should be allowed to vote. All should vote. If people were obligated to vote is it possible that it would stretch them to a higher level of awareness. It might make this a better place.

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Acceptance is the answer

"Im a Tarte, what! you want some of this?"

We could go with the system Heinlein used in Starship Troopers: Anybody may join the service but it's hardship duty that may get you killed. If you survive your stint with an honorable discharge you may vote and run for public office.
Weeds out everybody with no sense of civic duty.

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"Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain"- Iowa state motto

Ventura/ Paul '12

The dream system of the military-industrial complex.

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"Man lives in the sunlit world of that which he believes to be reality. But unseen by most is an underworld, a place that is just as real... but not as brightly lit... A DARK SIDE!"
-opening from Tales From the Darkside

The turnout for voting in the US is very low 56.70% in 2004.

The last general election in the UK only had a 61% turnout, could this be a sign that people don’t think there is much point in voting?

The two main parties in Britain are almost identical and to be honest I don’t think anything would change either way. In the US the main candidates also appear to have a similar position on the political scale but the gap is far greater indication the population has far greater choice. In the US you vote for the leader but in the UK the party can replace the leader at any time without a vote and our current leader was not elected.

Not particularly. War vets as a rule aren't big supporters of adventurism or military-industrial complexes. Apparently being in the middle of a war has a way of demonstrating the costs first-hand.

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"Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain"- Iowa state motto

Ventura/ Paul '12

Is voting really all that essential to the proccess?

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The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
-- Ronald Reagan.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but if you are a citizen you can vote, some felons cannot vote.
NOTE THE POST BELOW IS NOT POLITICALLY CORRECT.

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The bad news is this, a few years back I called the local "home" for retarded people and asked if they did get to vote. I got an answer that" indeed they do and they really love the opportunity to be part of the country." I about crapped myself. I'm like thinking (which is difficult for them) how the hell do they know ANYTHING about the person or the issues? Then being the smart arse that I am I asked who was the favorite pick during the elections of the past, "overwhelmingly they vote for the Democrat." Now I'm really going to lose it, I was told that "they know the Democrats help support them." How do they the Retarded People know anything? THEY ARE RETARDED!

SO I guess there is a consensus when it come to voting for Democrats.

I should be fair and call another "home" for retarded people in Texas so maybe I can get a different perspective.

Voting Rights United States on wikipedia.

aristocracy is the way of the future

Should just anyone be allowed to vote. Personally, I don't think stupid people should be allowed to vote. The problem with that, however, is in trying to implement such a rule. How do you define how stupid is too stupid to vote? Who is actually smart enough to be allowed to write such a definition? How do you nominate, elect, or appoint the person who is smart enough to write such a definition, if such a person could be found? So, because of the difficulties inherent in implementing such a wonderful idea, I think we must needs just scrap that idea and go back to the default position of allowing even stupid people to vote. Which means everybody.

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Theodore Lamar Heiks
BA, History/Political Science, Western State College of Colorado, 1984
MBA, Entrepreneurship/Marketing, City University of Seattle, 1993