Text 1

Question

Public policy researcher Anthony Fowler studied the history of elections in Australia, a country that requires citizens to vote. Fowler argues that requiring citizens to vote leads to a significant increase in voters who would otherwise not have the time or motivation to vote. Thus, election results in countries that require citizens to vote better reflect the preferences of the country as a whole.
Text 2
Governments in democratic countries function better when more people vote. However, forcing people to vote may have negative consequences. Shane P. Singh and Jason Roy studied what happens when a country requires its citizens to vote. They found that when people feel forced to vote, they tend to spend less time looking for information about their choices when voting. As a result, votes from these voters may not reflect their actual preferences.
Based on the texts, how would Singh and Roy (Text 2) most likely respond to the research discussed in Text 1?
Choose 1 answer:
Choose 1 answer:
(Choice A) People who are forced to vote are likely to become politically engaged in other ways, such as volunteering or running for office.
A
People who are forced to vote are likely to become politically engaged in other ways, such as volunteering or running for office.
(Choice B) Countries that require voting must also make the process of voting easier for their citizens.
B
Countries that require voting must also make the process of voting easier for their citizens.
(Choice C) Requiring people to vote does not necessarily lead to election outcomes that better represent the preferences of the country as a whole.
C
Requiring people to vote does not necessarily lead to election outcomes that better represent the preferences of the country as a whole.
(Choice D) Only countries of a certain population size should implement mandatory voting.
D
Only countries of a certain population size should implement mandatory voting.

Answer 1

Based on the texts, Singh and Roy (Text 2) would most likely respond to the research discussed in Text 1 with:

(Choice C) Requiring people to vote does not necessarily lead to election outcomes that better represent the preferences of the country as a whole.

This choice aligns with their findings that when people feel forced to vote, they may not spend sufficient time informing themselves about their choices, which can lead to votes that do not reflect their actual preferences and may therefore skew the representation of the electorate's preferences.