I was recently watching Fox News and they were running a story about a ballot proposal in Arizona that would create a voter lottery. The plan would be to enter each person that votes into a drawing to win $1 million from their state lottery. The story claimed that most people interviewed supported the proposal. Of course they do, but I wonder if it will actually pass and if it does pass, what that means for the rest of the country.
While it is a creative idea to get more people to vote and participate in Democracy, I am not sure this is the right approach. I would like more people to vote and am usually shocked and saddened when I speak with friends who are not voters. The problem is that by turning voting into a lottery you could end up getting a lot of uninformed voters to participate which would sway the results away from voters who actually are informed.
There was a recent survey taken that found out more Americans could name the characters from the Simpsons then could list the rights protected under the first amendment. Are these the people we want picking our President? Do we really want to encourage and reward ignorant voters by giving them a chance to win a million dollars? Shouldn't participating in democracy and choosing your own leaders be reward enough? Many people around the world live under the rule of crooks and despots. My guess is they would love to vote for their leaders and they wouldn't need money as an incentive. Just look at the Iraqi voters who risk their lives just to go the polls and vote.
If this proposal does pass, I fear that other states will soon feel the pressure to offer their own incentives and gimmicks to lure voters to the polls. I hope the people from Arizona choose to maintain the integrity of the current system. Turning the election into a get rich quick scheme only serves to cheapen the process.
4 comments:
What a stupid idea. You will get more worthless, uneducated people voting now. If they don't care enough about this country to know what they believe and why they should NEVER be allowed to vote.
Granted it's a states right issue, but that doesn't mean I don't have an opinion on this. If Iraqis are willing to risk death to vote, Arizonians should be just as motavated without the threat if they aren't ship them to China. I'm tired of trying to make things easier for the lowest common demoninator (sp). It isn't what has made this country great.
There is a reason that there was a property requirement that our Founders had in place-to make sure everyone who voted had a stake in the success of this country. This dilutes our country more
Interesting viewpoint, considering your Jimmy Carter voting experience.
I thought I'd add this new analysis --
Any suggestion that this would lead to better government would imply a belief that a) voters with superior insight exist but they aren't voting and, b) these better voters can be enticed to vote by a chance of winning money. That combination seems unlikely.
Now, it's possible that this will increase the number of people who are satisfied that they're represented in government, but that would only seem necessary if someone was planning changes to government that would make it less satisfying for the current block of voters.
"He who votes decides nothing; he who counts the votes decides everything."
- Joseph Stalin
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