About 66 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in 2020, the highest percentage since 1900. In 2022, 46 percent of eligible voters turned out, the largest percentage in a midterm election in more than 50 years.

But the United States still lags far behind most countries with relatively well-developed economies and democratic traditions. In a recent study of 50 such nations, our country ranked 31st, between Colombia and Greece, and far behind the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and Germany.

Numerous factors explain why so many Americans do not vote. Unlike most countries, elections in the U.S. are held on Tuesday (not Sunday or a federal holiday), when tens of millions of eligible voters are at work. Dozens of states require approved documentation that voters are who they say they are, a challenge that falls disproportionately on urban areas, poor people, people of color, college students, people without drivers’ licenses and Indigenous people who live on reservations and do not have a residential address. Many states limit the number of polling places, drop boxes and early voting days; restrict eligibility to cast ballots by mail; and make it difficult for people who have moved within the state during an election year to register in their new district.

In the new book “A Real Right to Vote,” Richard L. Hasen, a professor of law and political science at UCLA specializing in election law, makes a........

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