I propose we launch something like "The American Election Challenge"

I'm still mulling over how to do it best. Right now 40% of voting age Americans don't vote in presidential elections. Percentages are worse for other elections. The premise would be this: "Let's find out what kind of Government we can have if everyone actually voted".

The Challenge would cover all elections between November 2018 and November 2022. Call it a Grand Experiment in Democracy and widely use social media to get as many people as possible to take the pledge. It would revolve around personal pledges to collectively put to rest any uncertainty over how much of a difference the act of voting can make, by individuals signing up for a 5 year voting trial involving all elections between November 2018 and November 2022. There should be a designated web site for people to participate through. It should be ideologically neutral to make it easier to advocate for (studies indicate that non voters seem far more aligned with Democrats). The goal is to get everyone to vote and let the chips fall where they may after the vast majority of Americans make their feelings known by showing up and voting at all elections.

I envision all pledge takers updating their progress during a designated week every January. How well did they do? Updates should be in a form that can be statistically tabulated and reported on for pledge takers as a whole. To earn an "A+" rating one would need to vote in every school board, local, state and national election for the entire 5 year cycle. An "A" rating would be earned by all who minimally voted in every local state and national election during that time frame. A "B" rating would be all who voted in at least every state and national election between 11/18 and 11/22. A passing grade of "C" could be earned by missing only one state or national election during that time frame. The pledge would include a place to report when voter suppression efforts prevented someone from voting, and that specific "failure to vote" would not be counted against the pledge maker.

I envision using a campaign like this in particular to target and motivate young voters. We can dramatically change the world by 2022 IF WE ALL VOTE. Obviously we will never get everyone to vote, but we can increase voter participation rates enough to bring about radical changes in who gets elected to office AND WE HAVE TO!