14. Why Is It Illegal to Not Vote in Most of Latin America?

        There is only one thing in common with the elections from Uruguay and Brazil: both are legally required to cast a ballot. About thirty countries around the world have the national form of compulsory voting law; thirteen of them are in Latin America. Because almost half of Latin America is enforced with compulsory voting laws, it has the highest concentration of laws on any continent. The president of the Inter-American Dialogue, Michael Shifter, said “Advocates believe a full democracy needs to respond to the views and interests of all citizens. ... Of course, the chief argument against compulsory voting is that it contradicts the freedom associated with democracy.” The origins of compulsory voting laws came from the fear the country had of losing the ability to get their own people to vote. The final decision of adopting this system came from the great amount of those who did not support the government. Even though both Brazil and Uruguay went through a military dictatorship between 1950’s and 1980’s; democracy made its way back, and so did the obligation of people to vote.

        Kathy Gilsinan, the author of this article, took the opportunity to inform the reader about the different voting system there is around Latin America because of the elections in both Uruguay and Brazil. The purpose of her article was to inform; specifically to tell the reader about the compulsory voting law enforced in most of Latin America. Using historic facts, Gilsinan, explained to the reader how the voting system came to be this way. She uses two pictures throughout her piece; the first one is a picture of Brazil, its flag and the Christ symbol (I thought it was ironic for the election of a new president for Brazil was today). The second one is a map of the world, which shows how many countries use the compulsory voting law system. Kathy uses informal language for the reader to have better understanding of her piece. Although this article was short, it was direct and right to the point; a well written informative article.

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/10/why-is-it-illegal-not-to-vote-in-most-of-latin-america/381936/