BREAKING: President Obama Wants To Propose 'Mandatory Voting.' It would change everything.

[Xithras]

304. I saw a proposal several years ago that would cover it.

Basically, it proposed that the federal government fire up a grant program to help counties and election districts modernize and pay election workers. Fund it well enough that states, counties, and cities would be stupid not to opt-in. As a requirement to get the money, each election district would have to provide its voters with an annual statement similar to a W-2, listing the number of elections they voted in. It wouldn't record HOW they voted, just THAT they voted and how many times they did so (my county has two elections per year, for example).

The voter can then use the form to claim a refundable federal tax credit of, say, $100 per election that they participated in.

This model sidesteps all of the Constitutional and free speech issues that normally surrounds the process. The government isn't penalizing anybody for not voting, and the states and counties aren't forced to join in, but applies social and economic pressure to push both local governments and individual citizens to do so. I thought it was a fairly brilliant solution.