Want to increase voter turn out?
I have a quick break in the fair preparation so I thought I would get a couple of quick posts out.
I got a chuckle out of this story in the NY Sun.
"Who wants to be a millionaire? Anyone using the ballot box in Arizona, if campaigners have their way.
Under the scheme, which is designed to increase turnout, a $1 million prize will be handed to a voter selected at random after elections held every two years. Those taking part in party primary elections could win another $1 million prize."
Now I am the first to agree that voter turn-out is important. Our community is trying to think of ways to improve voter turn out (at the last Presidential election turn out was 82% but at the last municipal election was a paltry 29%), however is this really the way to do it? What ever happened to civic pride? What ever happened to doing your duty as a citizen?
Drawing more voters to the polling place on election day is great, but do we want to settle for just more voters or do we want more EDUCATED VOTERS? The best way (in my mind) to get more people to the voting booth is to get them engaged. Get them to care about the candidates and the issues. However, in order to do that, politicians have to get out among the people. They have to come to town hall meetings and to the town festivals and where ever the people are. Ad buys and newspapers are not enough. Seeing you in our neighborhood is!
And playing "who wants to be a millionaire?" isn't the ticket either. What's next? Scratch 'N Win ballots where the winner get to buy a ten thousand extra votes for the candidate of his/her choice?
I got a chuckle out of this story in the NY Sun.
"Who wants to be a millionaire? Anyone using the ballot box in Arizona, if campaigners have their way.
Under the scheme, which is designed to increase turnout, a $1 million prize will be handed to a voter selected at random after elections held every two years. Those taking part in party primary elections could win another $1 million prize."
Now I am the first to agree that voter turn-out is important. Our community is trying to think of ways to improve voter turn out (at the last Presidential election turn out was 82% but at the last municipal election was a paltry 29%), however is this really the way to do it? What ever happened to civic pride? What ever happened to doing your duty as a citizen?
Drawing more voters to the polling place on election day is great, but do we want to settle for just more voters or do we want more EDUCATED VOTERS? The best way (in my mind) to get more people to the voting booth is to get them engaged. Get them to care about the candidates and the issues. However, in order to do that, politicians have to get out among the people. They have to come to town hall meetings and to the town festivals and where ever the people are. Ad buys and newspapers are not enough. Seeing you in our neighborhood is!
And playing "who wants to be a millionaire?" isn't the ticket either. What's next? Scratch 'N Win ballots where the winner get to buy a ten thousand extra votes for the candidate of his/her choice?
posted by The Lady Logician at
7:02 PM
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