A narrow majority of Scots support making voting compulsory at UK general elections, according to new polling, amid growing concern over Scotland’s slump in voter turnout.
The Scotland-only figures seen by The Herald from a UK-wide Convergent Opinion poll found that 51.2% of Scottish respondents supported making it a legal requirement for everyone eligible to vote to cast a ballot at UK general elections, compared with 26.8% who opposed the move.
The same analysis found Scots also backed compulsory voting for local elections, by 46.9% to 29.3%.
The poll was conducted by Convergent Opinion on behalf of the Campaign for Compulsory Voting between April 7 and 14, with a UK-wide sample of 3,327.
The Scottish crossbreak had an unweighted base of 229 respondents, meaning the results should be treated with caution.
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However, the findings suggest Scottish opinion is broadly in line with the wider UK sample, where 51.7% backed compulsory voting for general elections and 44.4% backed it for local elections.
A small crossbreak of people who said they voted SNP at the 2024 general election found 74.7% supported compulsory voting for UK general elections, compared with 19% who opposed it. Support among SNP voters also stood at 63.5% for local elections, compared with 22.2% opposed. The SNP subgroup had a weighted base of 52.
The campaign also said its Scotland-only analysis found support for adding a “None of the Above” option to UK ballot papers, by 53.4% to 20%.
Separate Savanta polling earlier this year also suggests there is support for the policy at Holyrood elections, with 57% of Scottish respondents backing compulsory voting for Scottish Parliament contests and 21% opposed. The finding was based on a Scotland sub-sample of 170 respondents.
The findings come amid renewed concern about voter turnout in Scotland.
Turnout at the 2026 Scottish Parliament election was 53.2%, down 10.3 percentage points on 2021.
Recent Westminster by-elections in Scotland also saw low participation, with turnout of 38% in Aberdeen South and 31.36% in Arbroath and Broughty Ferry.
The Campaign for Compulsory Voting said it has begun lobbying at Holyrood for the introduction of compulsory voting in elections within devolved competence, and said it had spoken to more than 100 MSPs.
Charles White, of the Campaign for Compulsory Voting, said: “Scotland has, for decades, seen low and unequal turnout blighting its elections. This has led to a politics which is stuck in aspic. Instead of dynamism to fix our domestic problems, all parties have increasingly turned inwards towards their political bases.
“The only way we can break this cycle is to employ the Australian-model of compulsory voting which ensures reflective election results."
He added: "If we are to make radical constitutional changes or break the cycle of inequality and low growth in Scotland, our future governments will need a genuine mandate from the country and compulsory voting is the only way to ensure that is possible.
“Fortunately, the Scottish public agree and are keen for it to be implemented. However, if the public see Holyrood running scared of such a popular policy they might reasonably wonder why politicians are so nervous of high turnout at elections.”
A Scottish Government survey published last month did not ask directly about compulsory voting, but it highlighted a sharp gap between Scots’ stated belief in voting and actual election turnout.
It found that 90% of respondents thought it was important to vote in Scottish Parliament elections, 84% said the same for UK House of Commons elections and 85% for local council elections.
However, the report also pointed to unequal democratic engagement. People with no qualifications and those who said they were “really struggling” financially were significantly less likely to say voting was important.
Supporters of compulsory voting argue that it would increase participation, reduce unequal turnout between different social groups and give governments a stronger democratic mandate.
However, the wider UK polling also suggests the policy is less popular among some of those it is designed to bring into the electoral process. Among people who said they did not vote at the 2024 general election, 30.4% supported compulsory voting at UK general elections, while 34.9% opposed it.
Opponents argue that forcing people to vote risks treating the symptom rather than the cause of political disengagement. They also warn that compulsion could penalise people who already face practical barriers to voting, including shift workers, carers and those with limited access to polling stations.
The Herald understands ministers have no policy intention to move to compulsory voting.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The Scottish Government supports efforts to encourage voluntary participation in the democratic process, such as the Electoral Commission's public awareness campaigns in the run up to elections in Scotland.”
