the contrary, voting rates among registered voters actually declined.
Other institutional means by which to improve turnout include reducing the frequency and complexity of elections to address the problem of voter fatigue, moving election day to a Saturday or else declaring it a national holiday, providing for automatic registration and absentee voting, siting polling places in shopping malls to reduce the opportunity costs of voting, extending voting over two or more days or else offering voters incentives to vote. Making elections more salient (ie visible, consequential and therefore meaningful) to voters also seems to enhance turnout. One common source of low electoral salience is the choice-restricting effect of a simple plurality system, leading to depressed turnout and tactical voting. Accordingly, proportional representation is often proposed as a means by which to encourage voting. The adoption of all measures known to increase voting participation would be extremely difficult. But, if they were adopted, 90 percent turnout rates in places like Britain, the US and Canada would be areal possibility. And yet there is one simpler solution that can raise turnout higher than all these reforms put together compulsory voting. In fact compulsory voting is the only institutional mechanism that can achieve turnout
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