In an earlier article, I questioned the motivation for compulsory voting by arguing that low turnout is not necessarily bad for democracy. Clara Fischer in 2011 responds that low turnout is bad because it is linked to socio-economic disadvantage and that compulsory voting can be part of a package of policies designed to deal with exclusion and disadvantage. In this reply I argue that, while socio-economic disadvantage may be a problem, it is distinct from low turnout, which need not be a problem, and that it is far from clear that compulsory voting would do anything to rectify such disadvantage.
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