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Election goal? Informed voters or larger turnout
LA considers lottery-style incentives
As we are all too aware by the flyers flooding our mailboxes, candidate’s pleas in our email, robocalls filling our answering machines or interrupting meals and the increasingly vitriolic commercials assaulting us when we switch on the TV, election season is upon us.
Most of us have a love/hate relationship with the flood of information and all too often, misinformation that pummels us. We want to be informed as we cast our ballots. Most importantly, we want truth upon which to base our decisions. Those we elect affect our future and those of our children, in countless ways. It takes commitment to plow through the rhetoric to make an informed decision.
Too many citizens complain they have busy lives and haven’t the time to inspect each candidate’s website and filter through the talking points, often written by a consultant. But how fortunate we Americans are to be able to arm ourselves with information and cast our ballots, when so few around the globe have that grand option.
Yet apathy reigns. Voter turnout is notoriously low. According to the AZ Secretary of State, the 2012 Primary Election the total voter turnout was a mere 28.09 percent.
To address the problem, the misnamed Los Angeles “Ethics Commission” voted 3-0 on Thursday to recommend that the City Council look at offering cash prizes to lure a greater number of people to the polls. The panel wants the City Council’s Rules, Elections and Intergovernmental Relations Committee to seriously consider the use of financial incentives and a random drawing during its elections, possibly as soon as next year. And they are not considering chump change to get the voters motivated. “Maybe it’s $25,000, maybe it’s $50,000,” according to the Commission President. “That’s where the pilot program comes in —- to figure out what … number and amount of prizes would actually get people to the voting box,” he said.
The concept of encouraging the uninformed to cast ballots based on the potential for a cash prize, would have horrified our nation’s founders. It should equally horrify us.
The Los Angeles Times carries the disturbing report
Source: http://seeingredaz.wordpress.com/2014/08/17/election-goal-informed-voters-or-larger-turnout/
