Berkley Center

These days I, like most Americans, have elections on the brain. This is the first US presidential election I'm able to vote in, and of course, I'm faxing my ballot in from thousands of miles away. But there's also another reason I've been thinking about elections, and that's because Chile's own elections were last weekend.

Now we're not talking any particularly important, high level elections here—just the normal municipal ones, but it was fascinating seeing the way another country tackles elections. For the whole month of October, the streets were covered with giant signs—the current mayor of Valparaiso actually had the lines on crosswalks painted with his name. One of the most notable observations about the signs, though, was that they were limited to just names and faces. Aside from the occasional candidate who appeared next to former president Michelle Bachelet, most made no mention at all of their party affiliation. Slogans remained extremely vague—things like "You choose!" or "Mark the difference!"

Aside from a couple really surprising outcomes, mostly the defeats of mayors who have supported right-wing president Jose Pinera, the most noteworthy aspect of the Chilean election was voter turnout. This was the first voluntary election for Chileans since the end of the Pinochet dictatorship. In prior years, every registered voter was required to vote and could face a $200 fine if they didn't make it to the polls. This year, all voters were registered automatically, but voting was optional. Last weekend, 5.5 million of the country's 13.4 million registered voters chose to go the polls—a rate of about 41 percent.

Personally, I'm a big believer in the responsibility to vote, and I was a bit disappointed when, talking to friends in class about their own decisions not to vote, I discovered mostly apathy. "Politicians are all the same, it makes no difference." was the most common response I got. Some people were even more frank: "The polls aren't close to my house."

But I may have been a bit quick to judge. First of all, many European countries, as well as our own, have often demonstrated similarly low turnout rates to the Chilean rate. Second, this is only the municipal election. I personally don't know much about the municipal candidates in my own town, and I can understand a certain level of apathy at the local level. 2013 will be Chile's first presidential election in which the pinguinos or student protesters will be able to vote, and many people are predicting a much higher voter turnout for that election.

But mostly, the concept of optional voting made me realize that I also believe people have a right to not vote. Before coming to Chile, I had never even heard of mandatory elections. Especially for a country like Chile that only returned to democracy two decades ago, I understand the desire to encourage all registered voters to engage in the political process. But I think it's worse to vote uninformed than not vote at all, and so I believe obligating people to go to the polls isn't the answer. Chile may have had a lower voter turnout than during the period where voting was mandatory, but the people who voted were more likely those who were actually motivated to get to the polls.

Tuesday night I, like plenty of other Americans, will be glued to my computer screen, watching to see who wins our presidential election, but I'll also be watching turnout rates. I'm hoping they're high. But if not, I think I'll be a bit more understanding.