Responding to concerns that the votes of military personnel were not adequately counted in the last presidential election, the Pentagon is making extraordinary efforts to ensure that its personnel and their families are registering and will vote on November 2. That's a praiseworthy effort. Here's another idea: use the Pentagon initiative as a model to encourage citizen participation throughout the country, perhaps through the auspices of the newly created Election Assistance Commission.

There are many communities of Americans who distrust the system, believe their votes won't count, and therefore won't register or vote. These groups could surely benefit from just the type of outreach the military is undertaking abroad. Under the Pentagon's program, commanders all the way up to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield are sending messages through emails, commercials, and brochures that everyone should vote. Campaign supervisors are assigned to military bases and are responsible for getting the soldiers involved—indeed they are expected to produce weekly reports for commanders on the results they have achieved. In addition, according to the New York Times, "For every 100 soldiers, there is now a voting representative. Armed with absentee-ballot information for every state, the 'voting rep' must make two 'personal contacts' with each soldier."

The Times further reports that "civics classes at base high schools have incorporated voter education into lessons, base movie theaters show public service announcements, and voter-drive organizers have posted banners at commissary and post exchange stores. Across the American military world, the week of Labor Day was officially designated Armed Forces Voter Week. Oct. 11 to 15 will be Absentee Voting Week."

Imagine what such a focus on the importance of voting could mean for other groups of Americans who have historically been disenfranchised or are less likely to vote. For example, what if this model was applied to the many communities of racial minorities who have been subject to repeated disenfranchisement, including in the 2000 election? We know that there have been numerous incidents of voter intimidation in these areas even in recent years that have depressed voter turnout.

Moreover, direct efforts to suppress the vote notwithstanding, there is widespread mistrust in these and other communities about the reliability of voting machines. We know now that African American votes were far less likely to be counted in the 2000 election, particularly when punch card ballot machines were used.

Or how about undertaking comparably ambitious efforts to get young people more involved? Only about one-third of young people voted in the last presidential election, and the number of young voters has been declining steadily over the last thirty years. Numerous nonprofit organizations have filled the void to get youth activated, but imagine if the government stepped in to play a role. Consider even just the inclusion of civic education classes in high schools in which not just the importance of voting, but how to vote, was incorporated—as it now is at high schools at military bases. Imagine if there were such public service announcements in movie theaters.

Or what about trying to activate and educate poorer communities? After all, of those who earned between $10,000 and $15,000 a year, 59 percent were registered to vote, and only 44 percent of those registered actually voted in 2000. By comparison, 82 percent of those who earned more than $75,000 a year were registered and 75 percent of those registered actually voted in 2000.

A genuine democracy relies on the participation of all the citizenry. The Pentagon has recognized this and is taking action with respect to its soldiers. Now the rest of the federal government should follow its lead and do the same for civilians.

Tova Andrea Wang is a program officer and Democracy Fellow at The Century Foundation.