Voting...59.6% isn't 100%

I recently responded to a post about 48% of Americans voting for Kerry....
It was actually 48.27% of 60.3%(1)...29.1% voted for Kerry

2004 Election Data(2)

Summary
Bush	62,041,268	50.73%
Kerry	59,028,548	48.27%
Total (all candidates)	122,293,720	Turnout rate among voting-eligible: 60.3%
Margin of Victory	3,012,720	2.46%

Actual Summary(of all voters)
Bush........................................................................62,041,268................30.6%
Kerry......................................................................59,028,548.................29.1%
Total Voted(202,808,823)................................122,293,720.................60.3%
Margin of Victory(all voters)................................3,012,720....................1.5%

Why is it that 39.7% of our citizens didn''t vote? The puzzling thing is that this election was considered one of the best since 1992 or 1960's...

One reason, our archaic voting traditions...voting on a Tuesday in November...Tuesday was for travelers, November was for farmers...Most didn't travel on Sundays, so Monday was traveling...in November, the harvesting was done...now the tradition is upheld to limit voters from getting to the polls...Why not hold it on a Saturday? or for 3 days, where it can be more accessible...

I am not going to bash the Electoral College, we are formed as Federalist Republic, and that means we vote by state, not individuals...

Apathy is another reason, it is difficult for people to muster any choice when they don't feel like they are being represented...a two party oligarchy...