But there’s another reason why many Americans eligible to vote don’t do so: they can’t, because they are not registered to vote. That’s a distinctive feature of American democracy that calls for explanation. In many democracies, eligible citizens don’t have to do anything to “register” to vote: the government does it for them by generating a list of people automatically registered, from government lists of drivers’ licenses, taxpayers, residents, or other such databases. For instance, in Germany all Germans over the age of 18 automatically receive a card from the government notifying them that
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