I confess, today’s column is a bit of a recycle job. Voter turnout fetishization has been one of my oldest hobbyhorses and yesterday I had to write a column fast and the news peg was just so easy. Anyway, I promise not to visit the issue again until ‘08. Still, I like this email from a reader:

Before the hate mail starts pouring in I just wanted to let you know that I’ve always agreed with you on this.
When I was 15 I went a school trip to Australia. Our class was at one of the government seats and tour guide was explaining to us that in Australia there is compulsory voting and that because of it more Australians vote then Americans (they were around 90%) compliance. Previously she had explained that the order candidates are placed on the ballot was determined by random draw so that the advantageous spot at the top wasn’t just assigned by alphabetical order. So I asked her if why would a system that needs to have a lottery to see who gets on the top of the ballot and gets all the votes of people who don’t care possibly be better then a system where only the people that care vote? She showed us some lovely paintings right after that.