Tom Friedman has an interesting piece...

...in the Times today about Australia and New Zealand. Among other things, Friedman reports that the two nations require their citizens to vote. He quotes Malcolm Turnbull, a former leader of Australia's main conservative party (my emphasis): 

“We also have compulsory voting,” said Turnbull. You get fined if you don’t vote. “In a voluntary voting system like yours, there is always the temptation to run hard on hot-button issues that will fire up the base and get them out to vote. In a compulsory voting system, your base has to vote — as does everyone else — and so the goal is to target the middle ground.”