Most people don't vote, usually less than 45%, lucky to get 20%

[CK_John]

in the off year elections. Of course these off year elections are the local offices that effect us the most directly.

[CBHagman]

1. Interesting set of charts of participation rates.

General charts of participation by race, age, and education:

[url]http://www.electproject.org/home/voter-turnout/demographics[/url]

Be certain to click on the link for the raw data on voter turnout.

[bhikkhu]

2. In Oregon its about 70%

Not that people are more political here, or the education system is especially different as far as civics or learning about democracy. We just make it easy to vote.

[Igel]

5. That's the excuse now.

It was high before mail ballots, and some mail-ballot years have been lower than what came before.

Oregon's weird. (I lived in Eugene for a decade, or nearly so.)

[Bluenorthwest]

3. Speak for your own State, John. Oregon turnout ranges from 69% upward....

Some other States do as well or better. Minnesotans are no slouches with the voting. In this current cycle the lowest primary turnouts have been Louisiana and New York, with NY at 29.7%. Most NYers don't vote. Most Oregonians do. It's a fact.

[CK_John]

4. NY can only count registered voters and not eligible voters which

would double the registered roles. The usual excuse is to avoid jury duty. Which is bogus because DMV list, propriety tax list and other lists are used for jury duty.

[gratuitous]

6. Make it as easy to vote as it is to buy a pack of smokes

Or any other routine transaction you can think of. Instead of one day elections, have an election week, with polls open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. from Sunday through Saturday. Automatically register people when they renew their driver's licenses. Run public service announcements (Are those even required of broadcast media anymore in exchange for using the public airwaves?) at least as often as political ads are run.

But for some reason, we don't think it should be easy or desirable for citizens to vote.

[CK_John]

7. There are powerful forces who spend all their time to keep people

from voting. They study the process and use it to maintain power.

We have not come to grip with the phaseout of the ward boss system, which controlled who got a job and other political perks.

Don't forget it takes 50 plus states and territories to do anything.