£1000 fine for not registering to vote

Hibbie · Post by **Hibbie** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 10:54 am

The reason why I ask is because I have read about people recieving these threats of being fined but it is very rare that anything actually happens. People saying they haven't registered in years rven though they have had people knocking the door asking them to register.

NickUndercover · Post by **NickUndercover** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 10:56 am

Laszlo wrote:Is it possible to refuse to pay fines? Like, can you just say "No thanks your honour, i'll take prison time please"?

Nah prison time is higher on the sentence scale than fines and judges aren't allowed to give you higher sentences unless written in the law (even if they wanted to, they couldn't.) That's how it works in the belgian penal code anyway, & even if it's not the case in your Common Law the european court has authority and I'm pretty sure they've already applied the same system a few times

Liam92 · Post by **Liam92** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 10:58 am

Hibbie wrote:The reason why I ask is because I have read about people recieving these threats of being fined but it is very rare that anything actually happens. People saying they haven't registered in years rven though they have had people knocking the door asking them to register.

Is it not better just registering rather than being stubborn and waiting to find out then getting hammered with a big fine?

NickUndercover · Post by **NickUndercover** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 11:01 am

I think most of the time it costs more to coerce someone to pay a fine than the actual worth of the fine

Laszlo · Post by **Laszlo** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 11:03 am

Rönin wrote:
Laszlo wrote:Is it possible to refuse to pay fines? Like, can you just say "No thanks your honour, i'll take prison time please"?
Nah prison time is higher on the sentence scale than fines and judges aren't allowed to give you higher sentences unless written in the law (even if they wanted to, they couldn't.) That's how it works in the belgian penal code anyway, & even if it's not the case in your Common Law the european court has authority and I'm pretty sure they've already applied the same system a few times

So you can't just say "Ahhh, go fuck yourself."? Does the court just take it out of your bank account?
Need to know. There are certain fines I would kick up a fuss about.

Hibbie · Post by **Hibbie** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 11:18 am

Liam92 wrote:
Hibbie wrote:The reason why I ask is because I have read about people recieving these threats of being fined but it is very rare that anything actually happens. People saying they haven't registered in years rven though they have had people knocking the door asking them to register.
Is it not better just registering rather than being stubborn and waiting to find out then getting hammered with a big fine?

Mate I just haven't been arsed to do anything with it it really hasn't been a big deal.
I thought I could just leave it, throw the forms away and be forgotten about.
It's only in the last hour or two that I have been looking into it to see if anything will actually happen. If I have to pay some shitty fine then I will next time they get in touch but if not then fuck it.

NickUndercover · Post by **NickUndercover** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 11:22 am

Laszlo wrote:
Rönin wrote:
Laszlo wrote:Is it possible to refuse to pay fines? Like, can you just say "No thanks your honour, i'll take prison time please"?
Nah prison time is higher on the sentence scale than fines and judges aren't allowed to give you higher sentences unless written in the law (even if they wanted to, they couldn't.) That's how it works in the belgian penal code anyway, & even if it's not the case in your Common Law the european court has authority and I'm pretty sure they've already applied the same system a few times
So you can't just say "Ahhh, go fuck yourself."? Does the court just take it out of your bank account?
Need to know. There are certain fines I would kick up a fuss about.

if you don't comply after judgement bailiffs are most likely to take contact with your bank, take what they're owed and send a report to your house afterwards (dick move but the courts allowed it here). if you're insolvent with your bank account only they'll show up to your house with an expert, evaluate your furniture and ask you to pick stuff that they'll sell until they get what they're owed and give you back the difference. This rarely happens because as I said earlier it's the most expensive, bailiffs get paid more when they're on the move and the expert gets paid too so you'll never see them show up at your house for a 100 quid fine. I would advise you to check up on the dates of those fines, they might have lapsed already

m8son666 · Post by **m8son666** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 11:37 am

Therr should just be one party and if you dont vote it should be assumed you voted for them, I should lead this party

Laszlo · Post by **Laszlo** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 11:48 am

Rönin wrote:they'll show up to your house with an expert, evaluate your furniture and

Get a leng to the jaw!

Nah I don't actually have any fines and never have. I just wanted to know if there is a prison time alternative (i'm not very good looking and would probably do alright in prison).

NilsFG · Post by **NilsFG** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 10:04 pm

Genevieve wrote:
kidshuffle wrote:1000 is a bit much, but tbh im all about fining those who aren't registered. Having those laws in places has created a larger voter turnout in some countries.
Extorting people into voting. How moral.
How about increasing the turnout by giving more attractive options?

In Belgium you don't need to register to vote (why would you register in the first place), but if you don't vote you get fined too. The idea behind it is that because they NEED to vote, they will automatically start spending more attention to politics, get involved and so on. Here's the twist though: not a lot of people seem to care about politics, fine or not.

I don't know which one is worse though; only those with strong opinions voting, or everybody voting including a lot of people who don't know what they're actually voting for.

New elections in a few months and I have no clue what to vote for and probably won't have then. Ain't got time nor patience to follow the Belgian political circus.

nowaysj · Post by **nowaysj** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 10:44 pm

Vote for the child molesters. Lol, that doesn't help clear it up...

Nihilism · Post by **Nihilism** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 11:05 pm

NilsFG wrote:
Genevieve wrote:
kidshuffle wrote:1000 is a bit much, but tbh im all about fining those who aren't registered. Having those laws in places has created a larger voter turnout in some countries.
Extorting people into voting. How moral.
How about increasing the turnout by giving more attractive options?
In Belgium you don't need to register to vote (why would you register in the first place), but if you don't vote you get fined too. The idea behind it is that because they NEED to vote, they will automatically start spending more attention to politics, get involved and so on. Here's the twist though: not a lot of people seem to care about politics, fine or not.

I don't know which one is worse though; only those with strong opinions voting, or everybody voting including a lot of people who don't know what they're actually voting for.

New elections in a few months and I have no clue what to vote for and probably won't have then. Ain't got time nor patience to follow the Belgian political circus.

Why should we even bother to vote? We already know who's gonna win.

And even if a miracle happens, the alternatives aren't better. But i don't think that i'm going to vote. Despite of having a big interest in politics (and philosophy) i don't really care anymore.

test_recordings · Post by **test_recordings** » Fri Dec 20, 2013 12:17 am

You can get out of it and my mate regularly does. What happens is they come round and say they're looking for him and if he's the same person. He replies with "Am I obliged to give you that information?", which is the correct legal term for 'Do I have to?', when they say yes he asks under what law, they can't tell him so he says they obviously don't know what they're on about and doesn't believe them before shutting the door. Works every time.

It's part of common lqw that the person in a civil dispute needs to be identified and have a witness for it to be valid or something. Did the notice have your name on it?

m8son666 · Post by **m8son666** » Fri Dec 20, 2013 12:20 am

lol instead of acting the smartarse why not just take the 15 mins, or however long, needed to register to vote ffs

test_recordings · Post by **test_recordings** » Fri Dec 20, 2013 7:32 am

m8son wrote:lol instead of acting the smartarse why not just take the 15 mins, or however long, needed to register to vote ffs

Why should you register to vote if you don't want to? My mate prefers the government don't know his existence because they are demonstrably a bunch of pricks

wub · Post by **wub** » Fri Dec 20, 2013 7:45 am

m8son wrote:lol instead of acting the smartarse why not just take the 15 mins, or however long, needed to register to vote ffs

It's not a case of acting a smartarse just for the sake of it. The government are essentially saying "you will add your name to this or we'll fine you for it". If people don't want to register to vote, they should have the freedom of choice to do so without being penalised excessively for it.

(I'm trying to think of an analogy that doesn't go completely straw man to illustrate my point, but knowing the folk on here who like to look for loopholes/fallacies in others comments instead of actually debating the issue, I thought better of it.)

teamhobson · Post by **teamhobson** » Fri Dec 20, 2013 7:57 am

wub wrote:
m8son wrote:lol instead of acting the smartarse why not just take the 15 mins, or however long, needed to register to vote ffs
It's the principle

nowaysj · Post by **nowaysj** » Fri Dec 20, 2013 7:59 am

wub wrote:(I'm trying to think of an analogy that doesn't go completely straw man to illustrate my point, but knowing the folk on here who like to look for loopholes/fallacies in others comments instead of actually debating the issue, I thought better of it.)

Fuckem and fuck this strawman bullshit, its just a way to shut down discussion. #fightthepower

m8son666 · Post by **m8son666** » Fri Dec 20, 2013 11:35 am

The principle, fuck the principle. There's many things we have to do that people don't agree with but still do them. I don't understand, if someone said to me you put your name on this list that the government has or you can be fined £1000 surely the principle is not wanting to pay that fine? Whether or not you agree with it if you don't register the government can fine you so why not just register, or as i was saying in another thread why not do something about it and try and get them to change the procedure?

Yeah wub please say your analogy i won't accuse of strawman argument i love using strawmen arguments loool

wub · Post by **wub** » Fri Dec 20, 2013 11:36 am

m8son wrote:why not do something about it and try and get them to change the procedure?

Like refusing to do it in the first place?

£1000 fine for not registering to vote

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