Let Voters Stay on the Rolls

'A whopping 37% voted in none of the elections,'
(Ansolabehere and Schaffner)

Every presidential general election many voters wait in long lines only to be told at the polling table that their names have been scrubbed [purged] off the voting rolls as inactive voters, and they have to go to the lines for registering and then get back in line to vote.

Most people are depoliticized and even voting is frequently restricted to presidential elections.

As noted today at the Democratic Strategist, using data across four elections, (2006 and 2012), a new research paper offers some guidance for state party chairs:

At Demos Policy Shop Sean McElwee reports on a new study 'by political scientists Stephen Ansolabehere and Brian Schaffner, the most comprehensive examination of voters and nonvoters that has ever been performed,' reveals serious problems regarding voter turnout and the data behind it, including:

...Very few Americans vote regularly, in fact, only 25% of Americans voted in all four elections. A whopping 37% voted in none of the elections. The other 39% of the population participated with varying frequency: 13% voted in only one election (generally Presidential), 12% in two, and 14% voted in three (most missed a single midterm)... Ansolabehere and Schaffner find that a stunning 63% of those who did not actually vote in 2010 reported that they did vote on [Cooperative Congressional Election Study Panel] CCES. 

Recent down-ballot domination by Republicans is a consequence of this phenomenon.

Encouraging the electorate to vote should be 365 days/year project by local and state Democratic Parties, provided the Dems are tiring of getting their asses kicked in elections.

And it would not be the most terrible thing in this democracy for state election officials to take it easy on purging voters.