We already compel participation in democracy. Get a jury summons, ignore it, and a judge can fine you or hold you in contempt. Nobody calls that tyranny. We accept that justice needs ordinary citizens to show up even when they would rather not. Voting is the same deal at a larger scale. If you can be legally required to sit in a jury box for two weeks deciding someone's fate, the idea that a 20-minute trip to a polling place is an unbearable violation of liberty doesn't hold up. The fine doesn't need to be harsh. It just needs to exist.
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