Many positive incentives fail due to legal red tape involved with voting laws. Laws exists in order to prevent voter fraud, and creating voting incentives opens the door to worse things like corporate vote buying. Corporate vote buying occurs when corporations use their power to ensure that others vote the way the corporation wants them to. Corporations have also tried to endorse voting, for example Chick-Fil-A offered a free sandwich to people who had a voting receipt, but was ruled to be against corporate voter buying and instead had to expand the offer to everyone.
If the government were to offer incentives, the amount of political involvement that would have to be avoided would be enormous. If someone received an incentive that said it was from the president, that person would be unreasonably swayed to vote along those party lines.
A negative incentive would most likely cause a major uproar. A tax, or other financial drawback, for those who choose not to vote would be seen as just a tax, and voters do not respond well to taxes. Other possibilities that mark people as different, such as a mark on a license plate, or on people’s I.D., would be construed as profiling, and would antagonize people for exercising the right not to vote.
Voter incentives would be much too difficult for the government to manage. Positive incentives would be an unnecessary burden on an already struggling economy. Negative incentives would cause unfair stigmas on those who chose not to vote. A way to encourage people to get involved in politics would be great, but the government has no place getting over involved.