bribed to vote

A fellow in Arizona by the name of Mark Osterloh, an Arizona physician and attorney, is proposing a state law via ballot initiative that would act as an incentive to increase voter turnout. The method: everyone who votes is automatically entered into a $1 Million lottery. Currently, more people buy lotto tickets than vote, hell more people vote for the next American Idol than the their next president. But really, I can think of a better way to increase turnout without costing the state a million dollars every 2 years.

At 62.3%, this month's Israeli elections were the lowest voter participation ever. In 2004, with billions spent to increase turnout and wide knowledge of the American Public at the importance and closeness of the election, the turnout was higher than it has been in many years. And after all that, the turnout only 55.3% in America. As Jon Stewart said the other night, the middle east should be bringing democracy to us.

So how does Israel and many other democracies get higher turnout rates? Well for one, election day is not a day people have to work. In Israel, it is a national holiday. In Europe, it is during the weekend. Israel and most of these European countries have a parlimentary system meaning that the ruling party can call for elections pretty much whenever they want. So Bush would have asked for a new election on September 12, 2001 and won in a landslide in March 2002 or so.

But our founding fathers didn't like that idea of being able to game the system and set up a perminant unmovable (except special elections) federal election day. For holiday purposes, this is much better for businesses, who will know when no work will get done and can plan accordingly.

Of course, if Election Day were a national holiday, Americans might do what some Iraelis are now doing, go on a vacation over Election Day. This is why early voting should still be a part of the solution, as well as making elections competitive so that people have a reason to vote (read: redistricting). In Iowa, turnout is much higher than California, in part because each vote actually counts in Congressional and Presidential elections.