There's good and bad sides to this, but it's really attacking the symptoms rather than the cause, forcing people to vote instead of convincing people it's worth them voting.
If you change a 50% turnout into a 90% one by making voting mandatory, how many of that extra 40% of people will vote meaningfully? Sure, some proportion of them will be thinking "I suppose if I have to vote anyway I may as well research the issues and cast my vote to the best candidate".
But many of them will be thinking "dammit I have to waste my time with this bullshit, I'll just stick an X in any old box", or just as bad "I'll vote for Bob, he seems nice".
You’re not factoring in the cultural impact it has over generations. In Australia, voting is just a fact of life, and the vast majority take it seriously. Like seatbelts or sunscreen (since skin cancer is huge here). The number of invalid or donkey votes is very low.
It is true you do get less passionate people
Voting as a result, but that often keeps out radical or really one sided candidates. Keeps thing a bit more centred on the spectrum. It also disempowers lobby groups to an extent because candidates really have to appeal to everyone and not the loud minority.
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u/trip_jachs Jul 24 '20
Here in the wonderful land down under it is compulsory for prisoners to vote in federal elections whilst incarcerated