ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the major proposals and then explaining why compulsory voting appears to be the only definitive answer to the problem. Individuals who are automatically registered or reregistered will be sent a notice stating their new voter registration details and will have the option to opt out of being registered. The governments of Japan and Switzerland compile comprehensive voter registration lists that could serve as models for any country, but getting their young adults to vote has proved far more difficult than getting them registered in recent years. A system of regional primaries would give the people of every state a meaningful role in choosing the major party candidates. Presidential government is actually rarer in wealthy democracies than is the practice of requiring citizens to go to the polls. Austria, Italy, and the Netherlands no longer require their citizens to vote, but the fact that they formerly did has probably contributed to their continued very high participation rates.
