KANSAS CITY, Mo. – My vote doesn’t matter. I forgot to register. I can’t leave work. I don’t know where to go. I have kids at home. It’s confusing.

The list of reasons people don’t vote is long.

Why? Because the list of people who don’t vote is long.

Turnout ‘horrendous’

Here, in the cradle of democracy, between 80 million and 90 million people – about 40 percent of U.S. citizens old enough to cast ballots – won’t vote this November. And with two wars, a precarious economy and the first major-party black candidate ever topping a ticket, this vote is considered the most important and compelling presidential election in a generation.

“It’s horrendous,” said Jacob Soboroff, executive director of the election reform group Why Tuesday? “If the United States is supposedly the world’s most famous democracy, why is our voter participation near the bottom of all countries?”

Since 1945, according to the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, average voter turnout in the United States – about 48 percent – ranks 139th out of 172 countries.

Some still find hope

Turnout in the 2004 presidential election, some point out, reached more than 60 percent of the eligible voting-age population – the highest in decades. And the fierce 2008 nominating battle energized voters, too.

“We saw a significant (turnout) spike in the primary season,” said Dan Seligson of Electionline.org. “There were tremendous lines. There were paper ballot shortages.”

Said Curtis Gans of the Center for the Study of the American Electorate: “We have deep polarization and deep fear and deep anger. Usually, that leads to high turnout.”

But other experts say voting in the U.S. is too difficult and confusing – based, they say, on 19th-century needs that are laughable in the 21st century.

“Defects in election administration and systems … can be remedied, and the promise of democracy restored,” the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s School of Law said, proposing an Agenda for Election Reform last year.

How? Several ideas are on the table. Here is a list, in descending order of likelihood:

Early voting

“Restricting voting to the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November unduly restricts many voters,” said the office of Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat.

He has introduced legislation that, among other things, would allow voters nationwide to cast ballots in the weeks before Election Day, for any reason, as is done now in Kansas and several other states.

But early voting may not help increase turnout. Recent studies suggest it simply makes casting a ballot more convenient for those who would have voted anyway.

Mail-in ballots

Oregon conducts elections by mail. Other states, like Missouri, have experimented with some forms of mail-in voting, but haven’t done it statewide.

And mail-in ballots are no guarantee of higher turnout.

“Where (mail-in) turnout used to be in the 50 percent range, then in the 40s, now we’re seeing it in the 30s,” said Brian Newby, Johnson County’s election director.

Moving Election Day

Soboroff said: “The vast majority of nonvoters say they’re too busy. … What other reason could there be for being too busy than voting in the middle of a workweek?”

Gans said expanding hours at the nation’s 112,000 polling places would be a good idea, but moving Election Day would not.

“The evidence is that would hurt turnout,” he said. “Those localities which have tried Saturday voting have not had high turnout.”

Registration

Adam Fogel of FairVote, a reform group, said: “People who are registered to vote actually go out and vote. … There’s not an effort by the government to make sure the voter rolls are full and accurate.”

Several groups have called for Election Day voter registration. Others suggest universal pre-registration.

That might meet fierce resistance from Republicans and conservatives, who say making registration easier would invite voter fraud.

Central voting places

Some election officials say centralized voting sites, where ballots could be cast regardless of a voter’s address, could cut down on fraud, cost less and reduce the need for poll workers.

Fewer elections

Consolidated elections would save time, money, and wear and tear on machinery.

But ballots with lots of issues and candidates can be more confusing, experts say, and take longer to fill out – making voting more inconvenient and hurting turnout. And many cities and states can’t or won’t wait for months before putting issues to votes.