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— Automatic registration, in which citizens interact with the government — getting a driver's license, for example — and are automatically registered to vote as well. This is done in many European nations and 13 states (plus D.C.). You can actually opt out if you're determined to make a statement by not registering (that's what 8 percent do in Oregon, Burden said), but typically this does boost overall participation by several percentage points.

— Early voting mechanisms, including early voting stations — which exist and work well in a number of U.S. states, even if here in Pennsylvania it's still viewed as something from Mars — and even mail-in ballots, which are successfully used in a few states like Oregon. These go beyond long-standing — and unfulfilled — proposals to make Election Day a national holiday.

Other voting advocates are focused on how to make various aspects of democracy — from the design of voting booths and polling places to registration using mobile apps to simply giving young people better information about who and what is on the ballot — more modern.

"We're all about how to make elections more open, inviting and easy to participate in," said Whitney Quesenbery of the Center for Civic Design, which works on projects such as testing an "Anywhere Ballot," where people can vote on their own device (she admits such solutions probably require "a better internet than the one we have now") or expanding use of voter guides — to address the common excuse for not voting of lack of information.

But in the end, one of the big reasons people don't vote for politicians is … politicians, and I mean that in two different ways. One is that political parties need to do a better job of putting up more competitive candidates in more races. "The number one reason" for not voting, Burden told me, "is not knowing who the candidates are, or not liking them … or actively disliking them."

The deeper reason — and it's something that the civic-minded folks who get involved in voting reform aren't comfortable talking about — is that too many politicians are too invested in discouraging people from voting instead of encouraging them. Some of the blame belongs to craven incumbents in both parties. (The supposed "liberal oasis" of New York state is one of the worst for voters, including a requirement that voters seeking to switch parties to vote in a primary do so six months in advance).

But for today's Republican Party — which does best with older folks who've lived in one place for a while and thus face the least voting hurdles — making it hard to cast a ballot is a feature, not a bug. Most of the worst voter-repression schemes — overly strenuous voter ID laws to fight nonexistent fraud, purging voter rolls, closing polling places, curtailing early voting — have been enacted by GOP legislatures, governors, or secretaries of state.

Some of these schemes — closing polling places on or near college campuses, or ruling that college IDs are invalid for voting — specifically target the young voters that we're now yelling at for not leaping these tall man-made hurdles and voting. That said, I do blame the Democrats for one thing: not making a bigger fuss about this. In the last month, I've seen dozens of TV ads on how the Democrats are going to protect health care but not one single ad that Democrats will make it easier for you to vote. That seems like a stunning lack of imagination.