We hear too much these days about disenchantment with politics.

Those who imagine they know the minds of millions talk too glibly about apathy and a "boring" general election campaign. Such claims are laughably wrong, demonstrably false.

What do we know for certain about today's vote? Above all, that many more people will turn out to make a decision than will stay at home. We might grumble about the choice of candidates, campaign styles, the electoral system, or the quality of debate. Still we are not deceived. The election matters and we care about it. Affected indifference is beside the point.

Scotland's referendum showed us what can be done, triumphantly, within the democratic process. Today, in constituencies across the United Kingdom, voters know perfectly well that a remarkably tight contest could depend on choices made in their cities, towns and villages. If anything, the lack of clarity offered by an emerging multi-party politics is proof that most people are indeed "engaged". They want their say.

For the sceptical rest, historical lessons apply: the winning of the franchise, votes for women, the sheer exuberance of peoples around the world when they first won the chance to cast their ballots. These are not legacies to be spurned. If they still fail to impress, there has been the example this year of Scotland.

The spectacular rise of the Scottish National Party has altered the terms of the political argument. Opponents of Nicola Sturgeon and her colleagues have been in no doubt, meanwhile, about the importance of the contest. No one in Scotland talks these days of apathy, nor can the party leaders, of all parties, be accused of having failed to take their cases to the country. Odd bits of misbehaviour aside, it has been a glorious affair.

Some of those running campaigns from London with their computers and imported strategists could do well to ponder all of that. The belief that you can stage-manage a campaign for the benefit of the media alone is badly mistaken. David Cameron's Conservatives have been the chief culprits, but Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg are not exempt from criticism. Voters are not fooled. John Major defied expectations in 1992 precisely because he risked meeting the people.

Lessons will be learned, no doubt. Once the dust settles after this campaign - and that will not happen quickly - other issues will have to be considered. Chief among these are the electoral system and the very manner in which we vote. First-past-the-post is patently unsuited to a multi-party UK: that much should now be clear. It also seems obvious that the old ritual of paper ballots posted in tin boxes in local halls does not sit well with everyone in the 21st century.

First-past-the-post has had its critics for generations. They have been hampered by their tendency to offer a dizzying variety of alternatives. That problem remains. The argument for reform, in contrast, is now all but won. A system that worked well enough when two major parties had the ring simply does not serve a country that regards real choice as a right. A proportional system would make the Commons a very different place, of course. But who now regards that as a bad idea?

Many who today mark a paper with a pencil on a piece of string will afterwards do their banking with a mobile phone. Some, especially among the young, will wonder about that. The inexorable rise of postal voting shows how opinion is heading, but if the security of electronic voting is an issue - as it must be - think only of occasional postal voting scandals. The ubiquity of phones, tablets and laptops is one clear answer to anyone fretting about apathy and engagement.

Contrary to myth, turn-out has been rising in general elections, albeit slowly, since 2001. In 2010, 65.1 per cent of those eligible cast their votes. It seems likely the figure will be matched or exceeded today. Yet if "just" two-thirds of the electorate give their verdicts, it will mean that better than 30 million people know perfectly well why elections matter, why the right to vote matters, and why a free election is still democracy's great, rowdy carnival.