Just a thought on penalizing people who don't vote...Keeping mind that I am no expert on this stuff by any means. I barely get it in many ways....BUT i would say that I think someone needs to focus a lot on the usability of the system for it's intended purpose by it's intended USERS
How much thought, time, energy do the expected USERS of the system want to put into VOTING? Is that why they are using the system so they can spend time evaluating DELEGATES and voting for them? I don't think so. Sometimes we can get so caught up in the myriad of interesting and sometimes marginally more beneficial ways to do something and forget about how we encourage adoption and continued use of the system.
Speaking for myself, I am for the Keep It Simple System as much as possible. I don't want to spend much if any time voting for delegates....but I do want the system to be safe and secure.
Why not reward people for voting?
I think that's better, keeping in mind I'm only thinking of the end users point of view, not the economic or technical merits.
You have to think and talk USER BENEFITS to encourage use so making "money" is certainly a BENEFIT. If anyone ever creates a user guide (good idea BTW) they should put all the technical details in an appendix for those who are interested but focus on BENEFITS and use of the system primarily. Just put a small section with bolded catch phrases like "Delegated Proof of Stake" with a link to the appendix. Don't put it in their face and force them to wade through it. Many will be impressed enough by the cool catch phrases.
However, my honest view is that as a USER of the system, I would expect the system to secure itself or to have the "carbon units" if there are any, take care of it.