Well, the US actively makes it hard to vote, by things like not automatically adding everybody over the age of 18 to the rolls and instead asking them to register, having few polling places (in my borough, there are about 5 for a population of 15,000) and gigantic (and confusing) ballots, not giving the documents needed to vote by default in the States that require ID (here you need ID to vote, but you are required to have one as soon as you become 12 so you are 100% guaranteed to have one by the time you become 18) and so on.
Of course, the less useful people feel politics to be, the less likely they are to vote so political education is also a must :x
That first bit is silly on our part. Though there's a sizable portion of people who refuse to register because "the gubmint is evil and i ain't gonna be tracked", so there's that. Polling places are a bit of an issue, but it really depends on the local municipality and whatnot. My city has 2 wards (and it's had 2 wards for about 15 years when it first crested 7,000 people), each with their own polling place (one's a gymnasium for one of the public elementary schools, the other's the gymnasium for one of the private church-run elementary schools), but it's got a population of about 12,000.
Gigantic ballots is because of the way things are decided upon here. They tend to be thrown all onto the same ballot day rather than having their own days. Confusing is another matter. Personally, I think they're pretty straightforward. The only thing that can get confusing is the sly wording that is often utilized on choices on them.
Technically, you're required to have a government ID of some form in most states the second you turn 18 (you can get one sooner, but few are aware of this). Most citizens have a license or at least a driving permit by 18, so for most they don't even realize this is a problem (personally, I had my permit a month after I turned 15 and have had a license for the past 7 years).
Regarding education, that's depends a lot on economic class, and somewhat on race and regional culture. Minnesota, a relatively wealthy, white, and moderate-liberal state, consistently places in the top 5 in voter participation (and we as a collective consider placing any lower than 1st in voter participation as something bordering on a failure of our civic duty). More diverse states like New Jersey do not fare so well in participation, and neither do states that are similar to Minnesota in racial makeup that have a fairly different dominant American subculture, such as Indiana (but in Indiana's case it could also partially be due to the dramatic difference in median household income). Both of those two states have participation in the low to mid-30s in off years, and barely crest 50% participation in presidential elections, the latter of which is considered a bad off year by Minnesotans. Wisconsin, a state similar to Minnesota in far more ways than Indiana, has participation rates identical to Minnesota's. Basically, some areas really fail at instilling some sense of civic duty, be it via education or a part of the subculture.
229058.
