Key terms Compulsory voting: a system in which citizens are legally required to vote (or at least to attend a polling station), usually enforced with a small fine for non-compliance. Voter apathy: a lack of interest or motivation to participate in politics, often used to explain low turnout.

The UK has never had compulsory voting, but Australia offers a long-running comparison that A-level students are expected to be able to use.

Feature	UK	Australia
System	Voluntary; no penalty for not voting.	Compulsory since 1924; eligible citizens must attend a polling station or vote another approved way.
Turnout	About 60 per cent at the 2024 general election, down from 67 per cent in 2019, the lowest share of the population to vote since universal suffrage.	Around 90 per cent or higher in recent federal elections.
Enforcement	None.	A $20 administrative penalty for non-voters without a valid excuse, rising to a court fine of up to $330 if unpaid. Over 1.3 million people were sent non-voting notices after the 2025 federal election, and about 207,000 had paid the $20 penalty by May, totalling around $4.15 million.

^{Sources: Australian Electoral Commission; House of Commons Library; Ipsos, “How Britain voted in the 2024 election”.}

The case for compulsory voting:

• Supporters argue it is a civic duty comparable to jury service or paying tax, and that near-universal turnout gives elected governments a stronger claim to legitimacy, since they cannot be said to represent only the politically engaged.
• It removes the incentive for parties to focus resources narrowly on mobilising their own likely supporters, since everyone must vote regardless.

The case against:

• Critics argue that forcing people to vote is an infringement of individual liberty, and that democratic choice should include the choice not to participate.
• It may increase the number of uninformed or randomly cast (‘donkey’) votes, and does nothing to address the underlying causes of disengagement, such as distrust in politicians or a sense that voting changes little.

Australia’s turnout figures are genuinely striking next to the UK’s, but the comparison has limits: a large share of the gap is mechanical (compulsory voting can only raise turnout, almost by definition) rather than evidence that Australians are more politically engaged in other ways, such as party membership or contacting representatives.

For a UK context where turnout has fallen fastest among the young and among ethnic minority voters (see the next section), compulsory voting would raise the headline turnout figure without necessarily closing the gap in political knowledge or influence between groups, which is arguably the more serious democratic problem.

Check your understanding 1. Compare turnout in the UK and Australia, explaining the main reason for the difference.  (Compare and explain, about 100 words: cite both turnout figures from the table and identify compulsion, not culture or education, as the key variable.) 2. ‘Compulsory voting would solve the UK’s turnout problem.’ Evaluate this view.  (Evaluate, about 200-250 words: use the Australian data as evidence for the statement, then use the ‘mechanical rise’ point, that compulsion raises turnout without closing the engagement gap, as evidence against, and reach a judgement.)

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