One Vote, Two Votes, I Vote, You Vote

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Drunken Voting?

The market at San Telmo is bustling, crowded and over flowing with tourists and locals (ok, mostly tourists) every Sunday. Every Sunday except this Sunday. While not exactly a ghost town, Buenos Aires was definitely a few notches lower on the volume and density, including the San Telmo market. Stores and cafes were all closed because it was Election Day. In the States the Presidential elections don’t cause this much of a change, especially not in such a large city. But this was only a congressional election and it looked at if the entire city had locked itself away.
For a country with such a riotous political history, or maybe because of it, elections are a very serious issue. I was informed by one of the few venders who were open at San Telmo that many of the restaurants weren’t open because they couldn’t serve alcohol. The state has taken it upon themselves to try to enforce responsible voting, a category under which apparently drunken voting does not fall. Even stranger, and somewhat controversial to me is that, in Argentina, voting is mandatory. Despite my personal belief that voting is important, I have to admit the act of not voting can be a choice in itself. And this gives rise to my question: is Argentina and Argentine politics better for mandatory voting? I can understand the theory behind mandatory voting, the idea that you have a responsibility as a citizen to your country. But there is one fatal flaw in this plan: you can’t require an informed vote. In the United States there is a population of the politically apathetic who chose not to vote. But what happens to that group of people in the Argentine system. It would be nice to think that these people, out of necessity, take the initiative to become informed voters. In reality, I doubt this is the case. It is important to note that there will always be some form of indoctrination amongst the population, from friends, parents, median and many other sources. And there will always be people who vote a certain way because, and only because of those influences, both in Argentina and the United States. However it is my belief that when a politically apathetic population is forced to vote, you increase the percentage of uniformed voting, there by damaging the process of democracy.

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