Democracy is synonymous to voting. There is literally no democracy without some form of free, fair and transparent voting taking place by citizens who have broad freedoms to criticize the government. An article by Jonathan Bernstein is published by Bloomberg argues for how the ease in voting defines democracy. Here is an excerpt:

Let’s talk about making voting difficult. Political scientist and democracy scholar Corrine McConnaughy made an important point on Twitter: “Reminder that voting rights are as much about systemic legitimacy as they are about electoral outcomes.”
She and I then had a bit of a discussion about it:

Jonathan Bernstein: Can I strongly agree even though I’m not really confident that legitimacy is a thing?

Read the full interview here. Also, see related Democracy Chronicles articles like those on the Voter Access, Voter Turnout, or even seen our section on American Democracy.