Britain doesn't have a "none of the above option", perhaps it's an idea to do so.
It would make me vote.
is voting compulsory in the Netherlands baldie?
I believe it is in Australia.
From wikipedia:
Compulsory votingAustralia enforces compulsory voting, including compulsory enrolment (registration) to vote. Compulsory voting was introduced in 1924 . The immediate impetus for compulsory voting at federal level was the low voter turnout (59.38%) in the federal elections of 1922. Voting is compulsory both at federal elections and at elections for the state and territory legislatures. In some states voting at municipal elections is also compulsory. About 5% of enrolled voters fail to vote at most elections. People in this situation are asked to explain their failure to vote. If no satisfactory reason is provided (for example, illness or religious prohibition), a relatively small fine is imposed ($20-$70) , and failure to pay the fine may result in a court hearing.
It is commonly but wrongly claimed that it is compulsory to only attend a polling place and have one's name checked against the electoral roll. In fact, Section 245 of the Electoral Act says that "It shall be the duty of every elector to vote at each election... The Electoral Commissioner must, after polling day at each election, prepare for each Division a list of the names and addresses of the electors who appear to have failed to vote at the election." A voter who has their name crossed off but then refuses a ballot paper or is seen not to put the ballot in the ballot box will be recorded as having not voted.
Those who do not wish to vote for any of the available candidates sometimes resort to informal voting — placing a blank or incompletely filled out ballot in the ballot box. Even though informal voting is illegal and technically subject to the same penalties as failure to vote, it is impossible to identify or penalise those who do so without violating the secrecy of the ballot. The number of informal votes is recorded, but they are not counted as part of the total number of votes cast. Over 95% of eligible Australians attend polling, and in both 2001 and 2004, around 5% of Representatives votes were informal
Some political scientists believe that compulsory voting benefits the Australian Labor Party, while others dispute this. It is argued that most of the social groups who would tend not to vote if voting were voluntary are more inclined to vote Labor (people from the ethnic and immigrant communities, indigenous Australians, and people with lower levels of education). Occasionally conservative politicians or libertarian intellectuals argue for the abolition of compulsory voting on philosophical grounds, but no government has ever attempted to abolish it.
The fact that compulsory voting has lasted through many changes of government indicates to many observers[citation needed] that the party that benefits most from it is the party in power, who are the ones that would have to change it. The reason for this belief is that despite its best efforts no government can avoid occasionally annoying its own supporters. These voters would never vote for the opposition, but if voting were voluntary and they were sufficiently annoyed they could just stay at home.
Following the 2004 federal elections, at which the Liberal-National coalition government won a majority in both Houses, a senior minister, Senator Nick Minchin, said that he favoured the abolition of compulsory voting. The then government gave no indication, however, that it would legislate to this effect, and indeed did not do so before being defeated in the 2007 federal election. Some prominent Liberals, such as Petro Georgiou, former chair of the Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, have spoken in favour of compulsory voting.
Because it maximises voter turnout, compulsory voting also maximises the quantum of campaign cost reimbursement--public moneys paid to candidates and parties polling a minimum of 4 per cent at an election.
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