http://belowthebeltway.com/2006/06/15/why-dont-people-vote/ I believe in the free speech that liberals used to believe in, the economic freedom that conservatives used to believe in, and the personal freedom that America used to believe in. Sat, 23 Jul 2011 17:00:21 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 http://belowthebeltway.com/2006/06/15/why-dont-people-vote/comment-page-1/#comment-1136 Below The Beltway » Blog Archive » Encouraging The Ignorant To Vote Mon, 17 Jul 2006 17:12:00 +0000 http://belowthebeltway.com/2006/06/15/why-dont-people-vote/#comment-1136 [...] As I’ve said before, there are many reasons that people don’t vote, not all of them bad. If I’m faced with a choice between two bad candidates in a particular election and I don’t want to vote for either of them, then there’s no reason for me to vote. Frankly, a lottery wouldn’t encourage me to come vote in a situation like that unless I could vote for “None Of The Above” and actually impact the race. It would, though, encourage people who don’t pay attention to politics but who do believe that putting money down on the lottery every week is an investment plan. And that isn’t necessarily a good thing: ?Bribing people to vote is a superficial approach that will have no beneficial outcome to the process, except to make some people feel good that the turnout numbers are higher,? said an editorial in The Yuma Sun. ?But higher numbers do not necessarily mean a better outcome.? [...] [...] As I’ve said before, there are many reasons that people don’t vote, not all of them bad. If I’m faced with a choice between two bad candidates in a particular election and I don’t want to vote for either of them, then there’s no reason for me to vote. Frankly, a lottery wouldn’t encourage me to come vote in a situation like that unless I could vote for “None Of The Above” and actually impact the race. It would, though, encourage people who don’t pay attention to politics but who do believe that putting money down on the lottery every week is an investment plan. And that isn’t necessarily a good thing: ?Bribing people to vote is a superficial approach that will have no beneficial outcome to the process, except to make some people feel good that the turnout numbers are higher,? said an editorial in The Yuma Sun. ?But higher numbers do not necessarily mean a better outcome.? [...]

]]> http://belowthebeltway.com/2006/06/15/why-dont-people-vote/comment-page-1/#comment-475 KipEsquire Thu, 15 Jun 2006 20:45:11 +0000 http://belowthebeltway.com/2006/06/15/why-dont-people-vote/#comment-475 This is also an issue in ballot initiatives. Is it fair to say that "73% of the votes cast were in favor of banning gay marriage" when only 24% of the electorate actually voted? This is also an issue in ballot initiatives. Is it fair to say that “73% of the votes cast were in favor of banning gay marriage” when only 24% of the electorate actually voted?

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