One of the alleged effects of compulsory voting is that even voters who are initially not interested in politics, will pay more attention to political news, as they want to cast a meaningful vote. Studies on this topic, however, do not lead to conclusive evidence. In this paper we analyse data from the 2014 Belgian election study, including a battery on political knowledge, and a more extended battery on the effects of compulsory voting, allowing respondents to make a distinction between various forms of elections. Results indicate that even respondents who only vote as a result of the legal obligation, still are avoid consumers of political news during the electoral campaign. Their levels of political knowledge, however, are significantly lower than among respondents that would vote even without a legal obligation. We close with more general opbservations on what motivational effects of compulsory voting might be.
