I say, why not? What's really the downside? People not taking elections 'seriously' enough? Why should they? Nine/tenths of the voting eligible public already doesn't take voting seriously because elections are a joke.
The Ballot That Is Also a Lottery Ticket Mark Osterloh has been known to walk around Arizona handing out large tickets that say, “DO YOU WANT TO BE A MILLIONAIRE?” Generally, this gets people’s attention. So does the idea behind it: a lottery system that Osterloh hopes will someday increase voter turnout by offering a financial incentive to show up at the polls.Here’s how it would work: Each person’s vote would count as a lottery ticket. At the end of each election, one ticket would win $1 million. If two million Arizonans vote, as they did in the 2004 presidential election, the odds of winning (1 in 2 million) would be far better than current Powerball odds (1 in 146 million). The voting jackpot would come from the state’s unclaimed lottery fund. “It’s surprising,” Osterloh says, “but a lot of people forget to pick up their lottery winnings.” Enough, he says, to provide $2.7 million every two years.
With the $1.7 million remaining after the jackpot, he proposes 1,700 prizes of $1,000 each. “That would increase the odds of winning something to about 1 in 2,500,” he says, “which is pretty good.”
Public financing of elections, with prizes for voting. I say we add this as a plank to the Dream On Party.
Tags: 2006_Election
