LA’s loony election lottery idea

There are bad ideas, and then there are really bad ideas.

Consider a proposal from the Los Angeles Ethics Commission earlier this month that the city consider offering cash prizes to citizens who vote in municipal elections.  Voter turnout has been lagging in LA—just 25 percent turned out in the mayor’s race last year and only 10 percent voted in a recent school board election—and officials are trying to figure out ways to entice citizens to go to the polls.

One suggestion is a voter lottery.  Citizens who vote would qualify for a cash drawing.  Prizes could range from $25,000 to $50,000.

Granted, voter turnout is an issue.  According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, voter participation even in the biggest elections—General Elections during presidential years—is off.

“Voter turnout dipped from 62.3 percent of eligible citizens voting in 2008 to an estimated 57.5 in 2012. Despite an increase of over eight million citizens in the eligible population, turnout declined from 131 million voters in 2008 to an estimated 126 million voters in 2012 when all ballots were tallied. Some 93 million eligible citizens did not vote.”

Turnout for off year elections and primaries is downright dismal.  For example, in West Virginia just one in five registered voters went to the polls in last May’s Primary Election, and that’s down slightly (four percent) from the 2010 midterm Primary.

But a lottery? Really?  Talk about diminishing the value of a vote. Voting, like success, is its own reward. If we’ve reached the point where we have to be bribed to execute even the most basic responsibility of citizenship, then we have deeper problems than the number of people who vote.

Let’s say LA decided to use a lottery system and it worked.  More people voted simply because they had a chance of winning money.  Does drawing more uninformed individuals to the polls improve democracy?  In fact, the oblivious lottery vote actually devalues the vote by a citizen who took the time to pay attention.

Elbert Hubbard said, “Responsibility is the price of freedom.”  It would be better if, through public education and family influence, it was drilled into young people that they inherit that responsibility because many before them have made the ultimate sacrifice for their freedom.

It’s not a lot to ask that citizens pay attention and commit to the exercise that strengthens democracy, and thus the country.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be too hard on the LA Ethics Commission. They’re worried just like many of us are that voting is not valued.  A lottery, however, suggests we’ve given up on the difficult challenge of encouraging participation as a civic responsibility and resorted to promotional gimmicks.

That’s not democracy.  That’s a carnival game.

 





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