Every country in the study underestimates the proportion of the electorate who voted in their last major election. The average guess is that 58% voted, when in fact 72% did. The French in particular are more pessimistic about the extent of democratic engagement. They estimated that only 57% of the electorate voted in the Presidential election, when in fact 80% did.

I work as election inspector in Western New York. We had about 350 voters show up and vote out of the 800 registered voters. At our poll, we did all we could to get people to the correct location and to get them registered for next time if they weren't yet registered.

Elaine, your experience rings true. Not sure which election this is but 67% of eligible voters voting in the US seems very high.

The U.S. data corresponds to the 2012 elections and the source used by Ipsos MORI was the IDEA (Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance). According to the U.S. Census Bureau the overall voting rates have varied in recent presidential races, from 58.4% of the citizen population in 1996 to about 64.0% in both 2004 and 2008 and 61.8% in 2012 (which differs from the value provided by IDEA).