by Robert Wilkinson
Though it didn't start out that way, this was somewhat of a tribute to Molly Ivins' style, originally published on my political blog back in 2004. I was thinking of how we could increase voter turnout in America so that the percentage of our voting public is at least on a par with Burkino Faso or Bolivia, and to that end let my ex-pat Texan imagination run wild for a few lines that may make you think, or even smile. Enjoy!
Election Reform - Get out the vote, win the lottery (and have a beer while you're at it!) Part 1
by laughingcat, Fri, 10/22/2004 - 12:18pm.
While perusing the Mar-Apr 2004 issue of Utne Reader, I found an interesting article by Jay Walljasper on some ways to increase voter turnout and therefore improve the actual practice of our democracy in action. Some suggestions were funny, such as holding keg parties near polling places.
I figured that would be a great way to increase turnout by bikers and frat boys, as well as the followers of the Church of Sunday Football, as long as another suggestion, that of moving election day to Sunday, was not adopted. I've seen good old boys in Texas so loaded by noon that I'm not sure we'd want them in a car going to vote. And standing on line with them waiting to vote would be a painful experience in random conversation.
The one that really caught my eye seemed like the obvious winner. At first, making your "I voted" sticker an entry into the El Gordo National Lottery seemed like a funny idea, but then again, every elementary school teacher I've ever known has offered goodies to the class to get them to do things. Sometimes it even works for the boyz behind the razor wire, but only if you're asking them to do something they want to do to begin with.
I'm sure that the prospect of winning "thirteen cool big ones" would entice enough people to vote that it would result in a win-win situation, and at least thirteen people would be happy with the outcome, regardless of who won the election. This could become an annual commemoration to the initiative of our entrepreneurial Founding Fathers.
I'm certainly into all of us having an equal chance at a "baker's dozen" of $13 million each, thus demonstrating our sense of fair play and unifying our national commitment. So I definitely vote to roll 'em Voterball, 'cause we the people can always use a morale boost! At least some of us would get to feel as prosperous as the media every 4 years.
In these and other suggestions, such as tax breaks for the working poor who vote (The writer says the 16th Amendment would figure into that one. Read the issue to see them all), I saw two more I liked that seemed simple and would produce greater voter turnout. We'll get to them tomorrow.
Election Reform - Get out the vote, win the lottery (and have a beer while you're at it!) - Part 2
by laughingcat, Sat, 10/23/2004 - 9:00am.
As I mentioned yesterday, in the Mar-Apr 2004 issue of Utne Reader I found an interesting article by Jay Walljasper on ways to increase voter turnout. Keg parties near polling places seemed a bit far out, as did the idea of making your "I voted" sticker an entry into a national lottery. Of course either of these suggestions would definitely increase voter turnout, and give most of us a rooting interest regardless of which party actually "wins" the right to bill us for an outrageous number of perks.
In the interests of public prosperity, better morale, and the American ideal of getting rich quick, I think a national "Voterball" lottery is a very good thing. That being said....
I've always been of two minds about the entire business of increasing voter turnout. I've had reservations about getting more turnout from the uninformed, since they tend to do things like vote in some strange laws, especially on the State level. I learned this in both Texas and California, probably the only time you will see these two states similarly compared in the same sentence. Ask anyone you know, and usually you'll draw a blank stare if you tell them voters in Texas and California share anything in common. Welcome to rugged forms of reactive populism.
That being said, I do believe that if more people voted, we'd get more diversity in our candidates. I base this on the old maxim, "you can fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time." So I suppose if more people voted, there would be at least a few able to see whether the Emperor has clothes, or whether the Emperor's men were stealing the clothes from the people while insisting it wasn't happening, or explaining why it had to happen for their own good.
I am of the opinion that the only way we can fix this rigged system is to open it up a little, remembering who brought us to this dance to begin with and the Constitutional document they left us with. These suggestions could be easily adopted and would increase voter turnout, a necessary component to restoring true democracy and "citizen government," as envisioned by our metaphysical Founding Fathers. At the very least I'm sure the government would at least be representative of a majority of our people rather than the present minority.
The other two are very simple: 1) Make Election Day a Sunday, or national holiday. 2) Assess a fine for people who don't vote.
We have national holidays for every other thing, why not something as important as voting? Sundays might be a bit difficult for the churches being paid to be polling places, but it seems like churches already get tax breaks, so the extra subsidy probably won't really be missed. On Sundays we could use the usual schools, as well as town halls. Lots of parking and people could see where their business isn't being done. And in the spirit of John Ashcroft and J. Edgar Crossdresser, we could even have voters pass a breathalizer test or they'd have to go home and sober up before casting their vote.
As for making those who don't vote pay a small fine. The writer calls it an "apathy tax," and states that in Australia it has resulted in a 95% voter turnout. The benefit to this is that it could fund the lottery above. That way you're either in the pool, or out of the pool. A five or ten buck fine for not participating in the national "we're going to vote today" game could easily fund Voterball and leave change left over to help our voting system become a little less chaotic. Why, if we held elections on Sunday, we could even fine the drunks who show up to vote. That would yield even more money to fund the lottery. Call it the beer companies' contribution to national unity.
These suggestions would dramatically increase voter turnout, thus offering results more indicative of the true American public's atmosphere. It would certainly blow open the ridiculous "Imperial Neocon Party versus the "Herding Cats" Party political lock that threatens the very existence of our nation and our world. Now if we could only do something about the State Lege and the lobbyists...
(Thanks for the memories and laughs, Molly. RIP, woman of powerful wit. May your columns inspire a generation of humorists.)
Love, Robert the Laughingcat
No point in increasing voter turnout when the election system is rigged. 99% of ballots are counted by 4 corporations in secret. We must take back our precincts and return to openly hand counted paper ballots. Electronic voting is fraudulent voting. http://votefraud.org
Posted by: Anonymous | February 02, 2007 at 01:44 PM
Hi Anonymous - Unfortunately, you're right. At my old political blog I posted a LOT of articles about the various types of vote fraud and other types of voter disenfranchisement and dirty tricks perpetrated by Republicans on We The People, especially the elderly and minorities in big cities.
I wouldn't have a problem with publicly owned touchscreen machines with open source code, transparency from machine to unhackable server, with everything open and above board. I'm not holding my breath.
Thanks for the tip on VoteFraud. I've already put it on my links. I'll also remind anyone reading this that for one of the greatest watchdogs we could ever want keeping the busted machines of Diebold and the rest in full public view, go to Brad Blog. His work is amazing, especially his reporting on Clint Curtis, the programmer who has publicly testified that he was hired by Repub Tom Feeney to write the code that enabled the machines to be hacked a hundred ways for several elections, including the one Dubya literally stole in 2004. Thanks for stopping by.
Posted by: Robert | February 02, 2007 at 02:40 PM
Thank YOU for aquariuspapers.com. Your work is phenomenal.
The best research I've found on Election Fraud is by Christopher Bollyn and Jim Condit Jr (votefraud.org is his website). You can find top notch interviews with both of these indviduals at iamthewitness.com along with over 140+ hours of interviews with other researchers including colonels, doctors, professors, bishops, rabbis, etc. If you want to know how deep the rabbit hole goes, iamthewitness.com is unfortunately the only place I've found to find out. I stronly encourage you to give iamthewitness.com the attention it deserves. Don't let it scare you away.
Best to you and keep up the excellent work!
Posted by: Anonymous | February 02, 2007 at 06:54 PM
If i am understanding this right; then who has it? oboma or hillery?
Posted by: donna mcgowan | June 02, 2008 at 02:10 PM
Hi all - I added Votefraud to my blogroll Feb 2007 when you posted your last comment. However, TO ALL MY READERS - A WARNING. Approach the site iamthewitness.com with great caution. I chose to leave it in the comment so you may know one face of fascist antisemitism as it festers in the collective body. The front page features William Dudley Pelley. To clue you in, William Dudley Pelley was a known fan of Hitler, antisemite, and ardent fascist. There's also a feature on Father Charles Coughlin, infamous antiSemite of the 30s, also a fan of Hitler and Mussolini.
The site is run by Daryl Bradford Smith, a self-proclaimed "patriot" and "anti-Zionist" who offers a lot concerning "the Zionist conspiracy" that obsesses so many people globally. So as not to provoke useless discussion about this subject, please remember that our gentle Astrological and metaphysical site is not a forum for strident assertions about the international banking conspiracy, Bildebergers, Rothchilds, etc.
I am quite familiar with many things of this nature, and even if some of it may be true, so what? Getting into paranoia of this sort is counterproductive to what must be accomplished in the next few years. There's too much garbage and fear being discussed and elevated in forms of useless "importance." And I certainly will not sponsor a forum that debates the legitimacy of fascist or antisemitic excrement.
What I will say is that regardless of who has done what, nationally and internationally, I have found that liars, cheats, manipulators, and bad people in general are never confined to one race, culture, nationality, or gender. Bad people choose to be their way, just as good people choose to be their way. This forum was created to help people know what's happening on meta-levels, as well as a place where truth seeking Souls can find themselves and each other. International conspiracies are best debated elsewhere.
Posted by: Robert | June 04, 2008 at 08:58 AM
Hi Donna - It doesn't matter. The system is in play, there are no "outsiders," and whether it's a suit or a pants suit, it's still a suit. They're all bought and sold 16 ways from Thursday. To put it another way, there is no "left wing" of the Supreme Court. No socialist, progressive, or Green could ever get nominated.
Posted by: Robert | June 04, 2008 at 09:33 AM