If there is no compulsory voting, then it makes no real sense to vote. Logically. Because the benefit you get from voting is the chance you will create or break a tie, time the benefit of the resultign election-result change to you personally. In large elections, do the arithmetic to conclude that it is not worth the time and expense of bothering to vote.
So all large elections in the absence of compulsory voting are decided by irrational people (where I use the word "irrational" in the sense of economists). Is that a good thing? I doubt it. It also allows vast manipulation of elections by manipulating turnout via adept use of irrational-pyschology. SO I am in favor both of compulsory voting, and of making it easier/cheaper to vote. Warren D Smith (sorry for the spelling, my xface is poor...) ---- election-methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
