The United States is the world’s oldest continuously operating democracy, with an unbroken history of national elections going back to 1788. Individual American states and cities can trace their democratic traditions back to the 1600s. The United States can rightfully and proudly call itself the birthplace of modern democracy. No other country comes close. American democracy may not be perfect, but for the first 200 years of the republic the overall trend was unambiguously toward perfection. Progress went in fits and starts, but it always went forward. Between 1860 and 1945 America even went to war for freedom and democracy in the Civil War, World War I, World War II, and several smaller wars. Both at home and abroad hundreds of thousands of Americans made the ultimate sacrifice to ensure (in Abraham Lincoln’s words) “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.”

Five years after Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address the 15th Amendment to the Constitution made it illegal to prevent people from voting based on race or color. In 1919 the 19th Amendment made it illegal to prevent people from voting based on sex, and in 1962 the 24th Amendment made it illegal to prevent people from voting based on the nonpayment of taxes. In 1965 the Voting Rights Act reinforced these Constitutional protections by outlawing literacy tests and other discriminatory practices that might prevent people from voting. In 1990 the Americans with Disabilities Act expanded voting even further by mandating accommodations for people with disabilities. All told that’s more than 120 years of expanding the franchise and ensuring that everyone who wants to vote is able to vote.

Despite this proud history of ever-improving democracy, in the 2012 Presidential election only 58% of the eligible population voted. Congressional elections never even reach 50% turnout. In local elections turnout is almost always less than 10%. Most law-abiding Americans are guaranteed the right to vote, but most Americans don’t vote most of the time. In a free society of course that’s their choice to make. Or is it? It’s one thing to chose to vote when voting is as easy as clicking on a link or mailing back a postage-paid form.