Should we make voting mandatory?

[Tender Branson]

Don't know how such a thing could be enforced in the US ...

[Tender Branson]

Austria had mandatory voting in Presidential Elections from the 1920s to the early 1980s.

Turnout was above 90% in all of these elections (97% after WW2 and down to 92% in the early 1980s), but dropped significantly after mandatory voting was scrapped.

The [theoretical] fine for not voting was 1000 Schilling (inflation-adjusted ca. 100-120€ now or some 150$).

But no non-voter ever had to pay a fine, because all Presidents who were elected decided to put out an amnesty for non-voters as soon as they entered office.

That of course did not mean that all newly elected Presidents would do this, so people were still heading to the polls to avoid an eventual fee ...

[Tender Branson]

I don't think that would work well in this country, but I would support automatic voter registration and having ballots automatically mailed to all registered voters.

States with full Democratic control should be pushing hard for expanded voting rights in contravention to the Republicans and their voter-suppression tactics.

This. Mandatory voting was for years in our books and nobody remembers anyone getting punished for not voting. It's an unenforceable law.

But automatic registration of every person that reaches adulthood, that's a no-brainer IMHO and it could save a lot of money and time for both voters and states.

Automatic registration is hard to do in the US, as it lacks European-style (excl. Anglo countries) mandatory people registration at local town halls.

The US doesn't even have any system that covers near-100% of people, not even all voting-age people have a driving license. Besides, it would be hightly controversial to introduce it, because paranoid anti-government nuts (aka Republicans) would go onto the barricades.

That only leaves the implementation of same-day registration for all states.

What we see as common sense policies here in Europe does not work in the US ...