Scott Duke Kominars, junior fellow in economics at the Harvard University Society of Fellows, argues that it isn’t turnout that matters, but the representativeness of the turnout.
Increasing overall turnout is an admirable goal, but not if the increased turnout is heavily in favor of one party or another. This is the goal of partisan turnout efforts. They want to get their side to show up without motivating or aiding the other side.
Kominars suggests that the first step toward representativeness, even in a low-turnout environment, is making it easier to vote for everyone. Barriers always affect people unequally, so we should remove all barriers.
What about people who choose not to vote? Maybe it's feelings of apathy, frustration, anger, or disenfranchisement that keep them from the polls. Who has the authority to judge whether those reasons are valid for another person? It can certainly be argued that in a free society people shouldn’t have to vote. Part of freedom is the right to not care. Do we really want people casting a vote if they don’t think or care about the state of our nation and don’t pay attention to what's happening around them?