We in France experienced a higher than usual participation rate during the last representatives elections. Turned out the extra voters had roughly the same distribution as the others. At least it was not game changing. In the US, the winner takes all voting system also demotivates voters, in some counties the argument that voting is useless is legit.
This is exactly what happened a few days ago in France. While it’s not perfect, it’s still a whole lot better than a shutdown.