Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Try your luck at the game of civil duty!

This is news to me: Arizona is voting on an initiative this fall called the Arizona Voter Reward Act where one lucky voter will be rewarded with a million dollars. This tawdry electoral ploy is all in the name of boosting voter turnout and Jeff Jacoby thinks it’s a terrible idea:

Such schemes have usually been premised on making voting (or voter registration) as easy and convenient as possible. But voting is already easy and convenient. Going to the polls once a year is considerably less onerous than buying groceries every week or taking the kids to school every day. Adults who care about government and public policy make it their business to vote. Those who don't care shouldn't vote. We are all better off when people with no interest in civic issues ignore elections and leave policy matters to those who take the responsibilities of citizenship more seriously.
In Arizona, there will be one winner while democracy loses.

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