Noah Valdez repeats as Fulton Medal winner!

Noah Valdez ’21, a philosophy major from Nashua, New Hampshire, won the Fulton Medal at the 127th annual Fulton Prize Debate held on April 30th in Gasson 305.

The topic for the debate was “Resolved: That the United States should adopt compulsory voting in federal elections.”

Serving as the judges were Myles Casey, ’17 (BC graduate student in philosophy & Fulton Debate alumn), Rita Rosenthal (Communication Department professor of public speaking and persuasion), and Christy Webster Dunn (former BC debate coach).

Debating on the affirmative was Sophia Carter ’22 (first Affirmative speaker), a political science major from Rhode Island and Ben Dewhurst, ’21 (second affirmative speaker) a history major from the District of Columbia. Debating on the negative was Nicholas Wong,’21 (first negative speaker) a chemistry major from California with Noah Valdez (second negative speaker).

The affirmative side argued that adopting compulsory voting was necessary to solve the problem of low voter turnout in U.S. elections—only 56% of the voting age population voted in the 2016 presidential election and only 49.4% voted in the 2018 mid-term election.

Low voter turnout was harmful, the affirmative claimed, because it contributes to political inequality and unresponsive policies toward the poor, the youth, and minority voters who are habitual non-voters. This results in politicians ignoring the problems of income inequality, poor health care access, and restrictive immigration policies.

The solution to low voter turnout, the affirmative argued, was to adopt compulsory voting modeled after Australia. This would require all U.S. citizens to show up to the polls. They would have the option of voting for “None of the Above” if they didn’t support any of the candidates. Violating the law would result in the imposition of a twenty dollar fine. Since Australia adopted compulsory voting, the turnout rate has never fallen below 90%.

In response, the negative side argued that the adoption of compulsory voting was undesirable because it violated the individual liberty of persons who abstain from voting. The negative also argued that public opposition to mandatory voting would cause voters to backlash by leaving ballots blank or spoiling them with improper markings.

Instead of compulsory voting, the negative advocated increasing voter turnout by adopting same day voter registration, automatic voter registration and repealing mandatory voter ID laws.

In a 3-0 decision, the judges voted for the affirmative side but named Noah Valdez (the second negative) as the top speaker and the recipient of the gold Fulton Medal. Ben Dewhurst (the second affirmative speaker) won second place speaker honors and he will receive the silver Gargan Medal.

As per Fulton tradition going back to 1985, if someone repeats as the Fulton winner, the name of the second place debater is painted on the great wall of Gasson 305. So, this means that Ben Dewhurst’s name will be painted on the wall.

For additional details, contact John Katsulas at katsulas@bc.edu.