While millions of Americans spent the last weekend arguing about the patriotism of the national anthem, a crucial element of patriotism has been suppressed across state legislators and rejected by nearly half the country: Voting.

My parents were refugees from the Soviet Union. They lacked many of our freedoms — that of speech, religion, the press — and were denied access to democracy. When they went to the polls, my parents could vote for anyone they wanted… as long as they were a communist.

Yet, many Americans not only take their vote for granted — as they perhaps should — but refuse to even participate in our democracy at all. There are many reasons for this. Some think it takes up too much time, others think their vote just doesn’t matter, there are people who just don’t like any of the candidates (or think they’re all the same). The lack of voting rights surely plays a role as well; however, most analyses show that voting restrictions reduce turnout between 1 and 3 percentage points. That’s significant, but even with those votes added into our elections, the turnout rate would still be hovering around 60% for Presidential elections and little more than half that amount for midterms.

Ultimately, it boils down to this fact: Voting is not a good choice to make economically. The chance your single vote will make a difference in an election outcome is microscopic, yet spending an hour to vote might take up time that could otherwise be used earning a salary. For many people, the opportunity cost of voting is just too high; you could spend that hour doing something else. If we were to incentivize people to vote, the collectively added votes would be far more representative and responsive to the needs of our general public.

So, how would we go about doing this? A voting tax credit might be the answer. Perhaps $25 a year can be returned on your returns if you voted. This sort of strategy implemented on a state-by-state basis would not be terribly difficult to do. If a state has a central voter registration system, they can implement a process to track ballot returns (like we have in Colorado), as well as receipts people can keep after voting to prove they have done so.

If people knew they would be getting $25 back for returning their ballot they would be far more likely to do so. Ultimately, it wouldn’t even matter if the person actually voted or wrote in “Mickey Mouse,” the person would receive their refund for taking the time to cast a ballot.

There are two potential concerns that come to mind, which I want to address.

1) Where are you going to get the money for this sort of program?

Most people who vote also drive. This isn’t always the case, but implementing a 2 cent per gallon gas tax, for example, would essentially mean that drivers would be paying into the $25 return throughout the year, and then get their money back after casting a vote. Although technically a regressive tax, it would be uniformly returned to citizens as it is collected. So, in reality, it’s not really a tax at all. Moreover, those who are least likely to drive are the poor, who would then be exempted out of the tax by default.

2) What about those people that are not citizens/cannot vote?

For those that are under 18 and driving, or are not citizens, the government can just provide the tax credit automatically. If you've got a working authorization you'd just get $25 back so it's not an unfair tax on those who cannot vote.

Unfortunately, many do not feel there is enough incentive to vote in our country, and the results indicate that a growing minority are making a larger number of decisions about our representation. A voter tax credit would be an easy, cost-efficient way to incentivize returning a ballot. After all, if people are required to turn in a ballot, many will spend the time actually voting.