Pew: Even amid high turnout, less than 40% of Americans voted in all three most recent national elections
Pew: Even amid high turnout, less than 40% of Americans voted in all three most recent national elections
It might not be apathy; it could be the fact that for presidential elections, a vast amount of votes simply don't matter, and that fact bleeds into other elections, where their votes would matter.
What I mean when I say that the votes don't matter is that if a person is right-leaning in a solid blue state or vice versa, they can be reasonably sure that their vote is meaningless, because we let land masses vote for president, instead of people. Of course, this doesn't apply for local elections, but I think it's pretty plausible that this depresses turnout in them, anyway.
I recommend representative voting.
Do you mind elaborating on this? Do you mean Proportional Representation?