Interestingly, every time I propose that the US go to mandatory voting I get a slew of objections. This happens even when I also propose a variety of technical changes so that voting is less burdensome: online, mail in, multi-day etc.

The most frequent objection is a variety of libertarianism in having your "freedom" not to vote infringed. I even specify that each office should have a selection for "none of the above" or abstain, so that one could register a protest.

I can only conclude that the real objection is that being required to participate would force people to consider their choices a bit more carefully and remove the excuse that "it's not my fault, I didn't vote for him".

Australia has mandatory voting and people seem to like it. Whether it produces better office holders is impossible to tell.

Policies not Politics
---- Daily Landscape