DESIREE COOPER: Mandatory voting could be a good thing

DESIREE COOPER: Mandatory voting could be a good thing:

"If your response to today's get-out-the-vote effort is, 'Make me,' then I'm thinking maybe we should.

Perhaps it's time for the United States to consider mandatory voting. That may seem anathema to the idea of liberty, but I think a Michigan election where less than half of the registered voters are expected to show up does even more violence to democratic ideals.

Dock the nonvoter

You may be shocked to learn that more than 30 countries have instituted compulsory voting, including Brazil, Luxembourg, Singapore and Belgium. The idea is even being debated in Canada, where voter participation has slipped from 75% of registered voters in 1988 to 60.9% in 2004."

I'll agree with this as soon as those that we elect actually "do" all the things they promise during the campaign.