WI: Compulsory voting in the U.S.

I'd imagine it would be an issue in the Jim Crow South, which ran on preventing blacks from voting.
 
But you wouldn't be voting in that case. It's no different than a Jury Summons. Maybe serving in a Jury is against your religion, but that doesn't mean you can simply throw away the summons or ignore it. No, you must follow the instructions, and either call, write, or show up at the required place at the required time. Then you can explain that serving in a Jury is against your religion, and hopefully the Judge would let you get out of it.

I agree I don't think it would be against anyone's religion to show up to a polling place. The individual would simply register and explian that they couldn't vote for religious reasons and it would essentially treated as a blank ballot with the individuals name down that he/she followed the protocols.
 
I'd imagine it would be an issue in the Jim Crow South, which ran on preventing blacks from voting.

That's why I don't think something like this could be ratified back then. There would be a solid block of southern states against it. You'd need every state except the ex-confederate sates +1 in order to pass it. If say both Kentucky and Oklahoma sided with the south then it would be toast.
 
That's why I don't think something like this could be ratified back then. There would be a solid block of southern states against it. You'd need every state except the ex-confederate sates +1 in order to pass it. If say both Kentucky and Oklahoma sided with the south then it would be toast.

Plus Wilson, being a slavery-apologist and all, would probably be against it. I can't remember if he opposed the IOTL 19th Amendment or not.

Overall, it would probably require an earlier POD for compulsory voting to even be an issue worth making into an amendment.
 
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