The present article focuses on the analysis of the effectiveness of compulsory voting and incentives for voting as election turnout motivators. The first part of the article discusses the level of turnout growth – the result of the introduction and the use of obligatory voting. Then, the article enumerates the characteristics of compulsory voting such as: sanctions, their enforcement, social recognition of the regulations and their efficacy in preventing the decline in electoral participation. Finally, the article analyses the institutional opposite to compulsory voting – incentives for voting and their impact on voter turnout.