Diatribe said:If I was American I'd vote but since I'm not...
I think it's a weird concept that you have to register in order to vote. You should be registered and written to by the government, meaning some voters agency, like it is in other countries. I think the entire registering to vote thing keeps participation down in the States too.
The problem with that is registration is tied to a particular location (so that we can vote in local elections), which means that if this sort of registration were required, we'd have to re-register with the government every time we moved. Americans don't like that kind of bureacracy. Many states do now have "motor voter" laws, which automatically register you to vote when you get your driver's license (assuming you're voting age), but that doesn't affect people without licenses.