Will Carrot Breed Voters Like Rabbits?

This year Arizona will vote on a ballot initiative that will give one lucky voter in each election a $1 million prize. Is this an experiment that should be tried?

The arguments against this initiative are many, but a bit too easy. It's just a gimmick. It's public bribery (and possibly even illegal on this count). It won't work. People shouldn't be paid to vote; they should vote out of a sense of civic duty. People who vote in order to win a prize won't research the candidates. It will make people feel good that turnouts are better, but the results won't be better.

The initiative's sponsor, Mark Osterloh, a co-sponsor of two successful initiatives, one on campaign finance reform, the other on public health care, has not made a very good argument in favor. He says it's good to bring capitalism into voting, but this is hardly capitalism. It strains out everything in capitalism but the greed. And he emphasizes this aspect by saying that he has faith in people doing their civic duty and voting their self-interest, as if the two were one and the same.

What concerns me most is that neither candidates nor political parties are taking a position on the initiative. Is it because it's been sponsored by a maverick, or because it would seem like dirtying one's hands? Or is it because doubling the number of people voting seems somehow dangerous? The way the initiative is being attacked by those who do have opinions makes it sound as if they don't believe that people who don't normally vote (poor people?) are capable of voting responsibly. This shows how deep belief in true democracy really is. It also makes one wonder why one of our favorite international strategies -- giving carrots -- is illegitimate here.

I think this is the sort of experiment that should be tried, if not in Arizona, then in a municipality somewhere. Let's see what happens: how many more people vote, and how they vote, and what they say about it. It's crass, gimmicky, and populist -- that is, all-American. In Australia, they fine people who don't vote, and in some European countries voting is required. Those solutions won't fly here. So why not a lottery? It's better than having a real estate magnate interview candidates and fire all but one.

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired
City Ethics, Inc.