Isn't This Just Vote Buying In Another Form?

Emmy award winning local newscaster Kent Brockman once said, "democracy simply doesn't work." Sometimes I agree. One of the things that makes me agree is the initiative process that is so popular in the western states. This allows a motivated citizen (or, more likely, political action group) to directly amend the state code or constitution by collecting signatures from a certain percentage of the populace, who then vote the measure up or down. Such measures frequently tap into some type of groundswell of popular fervor and turn out to be short sighted at best and jingoistic at worst. In short, they allow for the worst kind of unchecked majoritarian rule.

Witness a new initiative in Arizona that would award $1 million to one person in each election simply for voting. In other words, it's a lottery in which the price of admission is your vote. The logic behind the plan is clear:

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!'

Look, I'm all for encouraging participation in the democratic process. Gods know, this country would be a whole lot better of if enough people voted so that the militant wing of one party couldn't win general elections. But this is the wrong way to go about it, isn't it? Wouldn't it be better to deal with all the shady means we use to disenfranchise those voters who actually want to vote?

We've put a lot of people in prison in West Virginia lately because they participated in a vote buying scheme in the southern coal fields. I fail to see how this is really any different. The initiative doesn't require a vote for a particular person or party, but it does provide financial reward for deciding to vote. Sounds like our operation down south. And those votes were selling for a hell of a lot less than $1 million.