Never Mind The Bar Charts

Compulsory voting: how it happened in Australia, and could it happen in the UK?

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Time for an international turn on Never Mind The Bar Charts, with Professor Judith Brett, author of From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage: How Australia got compulsory voting.

It's a great book about how democracy developed in Australia. Not only how voting ended up mandatory but also why so many people eat sausages when voting, the flirtation with round ballot papers and the way British politicians accidentally gave the Australians more democracy than they realised.

Feedback very welcome, and do share this podcast with others who you think may enjoy it.

Show notes
  • Which places use compulsory voting (including those who have it but don't enforce it).
  • Talk of using weekend voting in the UK.
  • Optimising names at the start of the London telephone book.
  • From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage: How Australia got compulsory voting by Judith Brett: Waterstones / Amazon (though watch out that Amazon's paperback prices seem very messed up and Waterstones will almost certainly be a much better deal).
  • I'll take any excuse to shoehorn in another link to the epic Bill Shorten interview, from before he became leader of the Labor Party and lost a general election.
  • Music by Hugo Lee.
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  • Share the show's website, www.NeverMindTheBarCharts.com.
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    Never Mind The Bar ChartsBy Mark Pack
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