No, voting shouldn't be mandatory, allow me to give you a rational thinking explanation: You didn't ask to vote that certain thing, Yet you were forced to, the vote that was on that thing is technically false, wouldn't that make you mad, the fact that you were forced to do something you didn't ask for.. which is why I ensure you, you must have personal freedom to vote somebody or not, false votes are morally bad, and only causes more harm to the entity which was voted because people will know it's false, in this world there's good and bad, false is bad, true is good, so saying something that is false already gives bad thoughts, and bad thoughts are things that tend to be avoided, because of course, they're bad.

Most of the laws you see nowadays are created for moral reasons, but things like voting are a serious thing, making it illegal to not vote would cause a lot of controversies, so much so that protests can even happen, making voting mandatory would cause more disadvantages than advantages, if a thousand rational thinking humans came to think about if voting should be mandatory, it is very plausible that the majority would say that it shouldn't, and why you ask? Because of the exact things that I'm saying here, since the start of my argument.

Mandatory voting degrades democracy by substituting coerced presence for genuine consent. True democratic authority requires voluntary participation. When attendance is extracted under threat of state sanction, turnout reflects legal compliance rather than political will. In free societies, rights inherently include the freedom not to exercise them. Political abstention is a valid form of expression that communicates dissatisfaction with available candidates or rejection of the system. Coercing citizens transforms a fundamental right into a forced duty. Empirical proof shows compulsion forces unengaged citizens to the ballot box and generates hollow participation. A 2017 cross-national study by political scientist Shane P. Singh demonstrated that legally mandated turnout drives alienated citizens to cast invalid, blank, or spoiled votes. Furthermore, forced voting distorts results through donkey voting. The Australian Electoral Commission notes indifferent voters often just number candidates straight down the ballot. This arbitrary selection accounts for up to two percent of votes, which easily swings close elections based purely on ballot placement. Additionally, forcing people to vote does not make them informed. A study by the Institute for Research on Public Policy found that while compulsion boosted turnout, it produced zero increase in political knowledge. Finally, mandatory voting makes politicians lazy. Under voluntary systems, parties must inspire the public to earn turnout. When the state guarantees attendance, politicians stop mobilizing voters and focus only on a narrow band of swing demographics. A democracy only earns its mandate when citizens actively choose to endorse it, rather than relying on an illusion of consensus built on state coercion.