Unsurprisingly, countries with compulsory voting tend to have a much higher turnout. In Belgium, Turkey and Australia, three nations with compulsory voting, the turnout was 87.2 percent (in 2014), 86.4 percent (2011) and 80.5 percent (2013) respectively. This compares with just 53.6 percent turnout in 2012 in the United States, where there is no legal obligation to vote.
Turnout doesn't get close to 100 percent even when voting is compulsory, because the laws are not always strictly enforced. Yet their impact is dramatic. For example, according to Pew Research, turnout plunged in Chile after it moved from compulsory to voluntary voting in 2012: from 87 percent of registered voters in the 2010 presidential election to 42 percent in 2013.
The map below shows countries with no compulsory voting, compulsory voting and no elections.
Related story
Vote count resumes after 4 hours in Dharan Sub-metropolitan Cit...
