Should voting be mandatory in the United States?

Pew has asked nonvoters why they stay home, and the answers aren't mysterious. In 2023 they found the top reasons were dislike of the candidates, feeling their vote wouldn't matter, and being too busy or out of town. Those aren't problems a fine solves. You can't fine someone into liking the candidates. And the international record is thinner than supporters admit. Compulsory systems do raise turnout, but studies keep finding the extra voters are the least engaged: higher rates of blank and spoiled ballots, more donkey voting (numbering candidates top to bottom in ballot order). In Australia's 2022 election, informal votes ran above 5 percent in the House, hundreds of thousands of ballots that said nothing. So the real choice is between 64 percent of people who chose to be there and 95 percent where a meaningful chunk were marched in and voted at random. Which of those is more legitimate? Pew Research Center