Posted on 08/21/2014 8:28:47 AM PDT by Kaslin
The Los Angeles Ethics Commission voted unanimously last week to ask the City Council to consider "financial incentives, such as a lottery system," to draw voters to the polls.
You just know that if the city embraces this new low, then it will spread like a cancer across the land.
The City of Angels has a problem. As Ethics Commission President Nathan Hochman put it, campaign "spending is going up, and voter turnout is going down." Last year, 75 percent of registered voters skipped the mayoral race, and less than 10 percent voted in a more recent school board special election. Hochman calls the dismal turnout "a crisis" and says "a crisis requires you to do something."
That's the problem, too. Do-gooders have devised a number of ways to do something to make voting easier; early voting and absentee voting mean people no longer have to miss work to vote. Registering is so easy that when you apply for a driver's license, the Department of Motor Vehicles will offer you a registration form. City and state governments send out pamphlets with reliable information about ballot measures and candidates. Los Angeles gave $10 million in matching funds to candidates last year to make it easier for new people to run for office.
Yet the easier Los Angeles makes it to vote, to register, to run and to be informed the less Angelenos vote.
It seems that all the extra efforts by LA's left to increase voter turnout not only haven't averted the decline but also saw it accelerate.
The commission looked at compulsory voting -- Australia fines nonvoters -- but rejected the notion. Hochman says he prefers the carrot to the stick.
"My preference is that people show up at the polls because they want to show up at the polls," Ethics Commissioner Jessica Levinson told me. The city also is looking at switching local elections from odd to even years, when people vote in state and federal races. Despite reservations, she voted for the proposal because she thinks the lottery is a "conversation" the city needs to have.
Sorry. That's the chicken way of defending a bad idea. The city needs this conversation like a 10-year-old needs to talk to Mom about getting a large snake tattoo.
I tell Hochman I think low turnout is partly a function of voters not seeing much difference between one rent-seeking liberal and another. In a political monoculture, candidates are ideologically fungible. There is less to vote for and less to vote against.
Oh, and politics make people feel dirty, so by all means, grease the polling place and that will boost turnout.
Hochman argues that voting gives people a stake in their government. Me? I think citizens have a duty to vote. But if adults don't want that stake, a lottery isn't going to improve their jaded view of politics.
Hochman told me that he thinks the scheme could be so successful that LA turnout could meet Australian levels. Then everyone would be in the habit of voting, he crowed, so Los Angeles could end the voting lottery.
He cannot believe that. If the scheme were to fail, City Hall probably would vote to pay more money to entice voters to the polls. In time, there wouldn't be a politician in California who would dream of paring back the reward. To the contrary, there would be a bidding war over how much voters' time is worth. You know the answer to that: Voter participation is priceless.
$5 and a bottle of Jack Daniels
When this doesn’t work, they can then try to offer extra lottery “tickets” to those that vote more than one time. That should boost the number of votes for sure!
The price of freedom has already been paid by the ultimate sacrifice of our brave men and women in uniform.
Only registered Democrats will be allowed to participate.
Got an interesting call yesterday. From an Akron exchange, so, close by. I was asked if anyone in the family was involved/worked as a newsman or was a political blogger. I replied, “No.” Then was asked if I commented on political blogs, and I said ,”Yes.” They promptly hung up! WTH was that about?
I believe that paying people to vote is against the law. This is just another Democrat safety net.
“How can we get more stupid, greedy people to vote Democrat? I know! A lottery!”
Oh well, LA is working 24/7 to follow Detroit. Given liberal incompetence and corruption, even their vaunted weather may not prevent them from becoming a sun-drenched third world city.
The only hope they have is the “big one”. They can then start over again...since rebuilding the city will soon drive out the welfare kings and queens. Ironically, the Hispanics will most probably be the ones ready to roll up their sleeves and “git ‘er done”. The Hollydork crowd will have long since departed.
Anyone who is too lazy to vote unless they are paid to do so shouldn’t be allowed to vote.
That's too good; how about $5 and a bottle of Night Train?
I get calls like that all the time, but I’m on a consumer opinion list. They qualify me by asking those kinds of questions and if I qualify, they ask me if I’m interested in coming in. They usually pay around a hundred bucks cash. Not bad.
Gotta get out the Dem Base, doncha know.
They shouldn’t be allowed to vote, even if there paid to
You’re too informed to actually participate in their poll. They want to poll idiots who are easily taken in by a biased question.
Don't the fools know this is ILLEGAL?
Since when?
I could guarantee you would get fantastic turnout in the next election!
They are fools, so how could they know?
Just trying to find out which info box you fit into:
LO or HI
The HI's can be targeted later...
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