> never meant for government to have so much power that lobbying it would be able to buy much influence

I don't think lobbying is a problem because the government has too much power, but rather because of the electoral system.

When voting is voluntary elections are won by the party that is best able to get out the vote. In order to get out the vote huge sums of money must be spent on political advertising and organization. When political parties are desperate for money it requires them to devote a lot of their time to fundraising and it makes them vulnerable to special interest groups with deep pockets (aka lobbyists). Voluntary voting means more opportunity for money to buy influence.

Compulsory voting, in contrast, means that almost all eligible voters will vote. Political parties can spend less money on advertising, less time fundraising, and more time developing policy and doing the job. Because the electors have to vote they're more likely to take an interest in the election, more likely to listen to the ideas being presented and vote accordingly. The only downside of compulsory voting is that there are more votes to count, but that cost is worth paying.

Compulsory voting is a practical step towards getting the money out of politics and improving the quality of a democracy.

I disagree. I think government authority is the sole foundation upon which all lobbying is built.

If the government has no authority over something, there is no value in lobbying the government for help with that something.

Example: The government has subsidizes and regulates farming. Therefore there is a powerful incentive for agricultural interests to buy special treatment. Add ethanol considerations, and you have oil interests at work too.

I don't see why political ads would decrease just because everybody had to vote.

> The only downside of compulsory voting is that there are more votes to count

Australia has compulsory voting. It also has the donkey vote, estimated at 2% of votes. That is a downside.

http://australianpolitics.com/voting/electoral-system/donkey...

Before they introduced compulsory voting in Australia voter turn out had fallen below 60%. So with compulsory voting the "true vote" if you like is total votes minus informal votes minus donkey votes. Voter turn out for Australian elections these days is greater than 94%. If 5% of those votes are informal or donkey votes then that's still 89% of voters completing "true votes". A 30% non-vote has a far greater influence over an election than a 2% donkey vote.

The Australian Electoral Commission has a page about it: http://www.aec.gov.au/About_AEC/Publications/voting/index.ht...