The United States is one of the few democracies in the world where the government does
not take any responsibility in registering its citizens. This one-of-a-kind, self-initiated
voter registration process acts as a major barrier to voter turnout and leads to often-
inaccurate voter rolls.
In contrast, the international norm is a process of government-mandated automatic voter
registration of every citizen who reaches voting age. This report explores how other
major well-established democracies (Canada, Australia, Sweden, Italy, New Zealand and
others) concretely manage to build comprehensive, inclusive, accurate voting rolls that
leave no voters behind while ensuring a high level of privacy.
https://archive.fairvote.org/rtv/Universal Voter Registration-4-21-09.pdf