Make elections legitimate and meaningful. Turnout is low in Catalan independence referenda and US elections for different reasons. The former are viewed by opp

Make elections legitimate and meaningful. Turnout is low in Catalan independence referenda and US elections for different reasons. The former are viewed by opponents of independence as illegitimate: they are not approved by the central government and voting in them gives them the appearance of legitimacy. They're political tactic by the independence movement, and its opponents won't participate. The Spanish government could solve this by allowing an election, pledging to take the result seriously, and thereby answer the question for at least a generation. A significant factor in low turnout in US elections can be explained by the non-competitiveness of elections (correlation coefficient between turnout and margin by state was -0.4 in the last presidential election). If more states were competitive or the president were elected by popular vote (or Congress by proportional representation), turnout might be very different.