Should the US have mandatory voting?

[Bismarck]

Mandatory voting is a horrible idea because A. It violates people's rights and more practically B. Having people who are uninformed and apathetic voting is not helpful to anyone.

I do think it would be reasonable, as some here have suggested, to make Election Day a national holiday. I would actually prefer the opposite though, have less people vote by requiring them to take a civics test or something of that nature to register. That would help make sure that only those who care to learn and understand the importance of elections are deciding the direction our nation takes. That way you get less people voting for candidates they think are "cool" (Obama 2008) and would also thin out some of the folks on the right who just vote for the candidate that is the most "politically incorrect" or whatever.