[Anonymouse]

Hmm. Voting becoming mandatory. Presumably it would be a criminal offence not to vote.

Yeah. Aren't the prisons overflowing already?

I've said this before: in a true democracy, the right to vote should and must include the right not to vote. Having said that (again), if we got NOTA as an option I suspect turnout would be greatly increased. Certainly I would vote NOTA.

We the electorate are not apathetic. We just no longer see the point of voting for ineffectuals (to be more accurate, I don't - I can't speak for others, obviously). I don't vote for a candidate/party; as per Lazarus Long (see Time Enough For Love), I vote against. Unfortunately, if you vote against all of them that reduces to voting for none of them...not something Heinlein envisaged, I suspect.

'Suppose They Gave An Election And Nobody Came?' Ooh, I'd love to see what politicians and statisticians would make of that. Eat your heart out, Montgomery Brewster!