Arizona Ballot Could Become Lottery Ticket

[AnOhioan]

TUCSON, July 13 — To anyone who ever said, “I wouldn’t vote for that bum for a million bucks,” Arizona may be calling your bluff.

A proposal to award $1 million in every general election to one lucky resident, chosen by lottery, simply for voting, no matter for whom, has qualified for the November ballot.

Mark Osterloh, a political gadfly who is behind the initiative, the Arizona Voter Reward Act, is promoting it with the slogan, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Vote!" He collected 185,902 signatures of registered voters, far more than the 122,612 required, and last week the secretary of state certified the measure for the ballot this fall.

If the general election in 2004 is a guide, when more than 2 million people voted, the 1-in-2-million odds of winning the election lottery would be far better than the Powerball jackpot (currently about 1 in 146,107,962) but not nearly as great as dying from a lightning strike (1 in 55,928).

More at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/17/us/17voter.html?ex=1310788800&en=9626060428eeb1ed&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

[bluestateguy]

1. I guess I can go along with this,

But what we really need is mandatory voting and election day as an official national holiday (at least in congressional/presidential election years).

[Joe Bacon]

6. Move Election Day to Veteran's Day!

What better way to celebrate Veterans Day than using a right they fought to preserve?

[w4rma]

9. We don't need mandatory voting. No thanks. That is bad news.

National holiday for voting is a good idea. And this lottery ticket idea is a good thing, imho.

It's simple and relatively inexpensive. It will also be extremely effective for it's price.

[Pachamama]

2. If it gets people to vote, I think its great!

:kick:

[benburch]

3. Anything to encourage people to vote!

And this will encourage the poor disproportionately. EXCELLENT. They are by and large Democratic Voters.

[unblock]

4. this is perversely bizarre.

i'd say that this is the wrong way to go about getting higher participation rates in elections, but the sad fact is that nobody is really trying ANYTHING else.

what's shameful is the notion that people need to be bribed to do their civic duty.


of course, once the politicos get it, they'll realize that this will turn out the poor far greater than the rich, and so the banana republicans will defeat it wherever they can.

[struggle4progress]

5. "I randomly marked a ballot and won a million bucks! You can too!

It only takes a few minutes! I didn't even need to know anything about the candidates because the new electronic voting machines actually picked my real votes for me!"

[lonestarnot]

15. That is why you need to work hard before the vote.

[TechBear_Seattle]

7. I think this would be a better idea:

Instead of $1,000,000 to 1 person, how about $30,000 to one voter in each of the state's 30 legislative districts?

[n2doc]

8. Interesting how DU'ers respond to this idea

I posted this earlier in the GD Politics group and most responses were negative:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2727155&mesg_id=2727155

Here they are mostly positive. :wtf:

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

10. All this means...

...is that vote fraud will now consist of Bill Bennett voting about 500 times in every election.

[City Lights]

11. AZ schools are dismal.

If they have extra cash laying around they should use it to improve their schools.

[bigworld]

12. Call me elitist

.. but I would really like people to have a general idea of who and what they're voting for instead of just voting to win a million bucks. I mean, if people aren't motivated enough to vote by now, they probably really aren't that sharp to begin with. Or am I a little out of touch here?

[lonestarnot]

13. You are right, but I might win a million bucks for doing something I

always do! :rofl:

[City Lights]

18. If that makes you elitist then I'm elitist too.

It's a sad day for America when we have to resort to giving away money in a lottery to get people to vote.

[lonestarnot]

20. Yes. LOL

[lonestarnot]

14. No education and kids are not important in AZ. That's why we have a

Horn and not a Slade Mead .......YET!

[City Lights]

17. Horn = Tom Horne?

If so, I can't stand him. (We lived there for 5 years and moved back to IL last fall.) Who is Slade Mead?

When living there it always amazed us how the roads were perfectly maintained, but anything related to kids was pushed aside (in our town it was due to the large senior population). Back here, the roads are in need of repair, but the schools are better. I'll take better schools over perfect roads any day of the week. :hi:

[lonestarnot]

19. yes, but who need to give him any respect? Not me horn is fine.

[Freddie Stubbs]

16. This will certainly bring more well-informed voters to the polls

[struggle4progress]

21. $1 million question: Will voter reward survive legal scrutiny?

Associated Press
Jul. 3, 2006 01:05 PM

... For example, one federal law makes it a crime punishable by a fine and imprisonment for up to two years to make, offer or receive "an expenditure to any person, either to vote or withhold his vote, or to vote for or against any candidate."

Meanwhile, a state law makes it a misdemeanor to "treat, give, pay, loan, contribute, offer or promise money or other valuable consideration" to induce a voter "to go to the polls." ...

Like an attorney who researched the legal issues for Osterloh, a private lawyer who practices election law said the initiative could trump the existing Arizona law because any conflict in state laws would be resolved in favor of the newer law, which would be the initiative.

But the resolution of conflicts among state laws has no bearing on the federal law, said Lisa Hauser, a former state assistant attorney general. "It certainly is a violation of federal law for anyone to make financial payments to influence a vote and the federal law is not limited to voting in a particular way, it's just to vote." ...

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0703az-voter-reward03-ON.html