This is precisely why I’ll never run out of things to write about even if I don’t always have the time to do so.
I woke up the other morning. Beautiful day. Sunny. Cool. We’re going to Seattle this afternoon to see a show. Perfect.
I open my news page and what is the first thing I see: “LOS ANGELES WEIGHS CASH INCENTIVE IN BID TO BOOST VOTER TURNOUT.”
I couldn’t believe it. My very first thoughts without even opening the link: Does Los Angeles really have extra cash lying around for this? “Los Angeles weighs” means some idiotic politician or bureaucrat is planning to pay someone to do a study to consider this craziness.
I opened the link and sure enough I was right. The three-person panel of the Los Angeles’s Ethics Commission voted to recommend that the city consider offering cash, which might include a prize as high as $50,000. Not only one bureaucrat but THREE of them voted to have a committee, overseen by City Council President Herb Wesson, consider offering the financial incentives.
Let’s forget the actual payment in exchange for voting, but 3 paid employees have now voted to appoint a committee to consider this moronic proposal, to be overseen by the City Council President. How much money (time on the county’s payroll) has already been spent on this stupidity? One minute on the taxpayers’ dime is far too much.
The low voting turnout has always been something I never got. Unless you’re in a coma, and I mean that literally, there is absolutely no reason for someone not to vote. I hate it when misinformed voters vote (as so many of them did in 2008 and 2012), and many should actually stay home, but the fact remains, we each have the right to be misinformed and/or stupid and/or clueless which, in turn, means we each have the right to vote regardless of whether we actually know for whom we’re voting.
I have voted in every election – big or small – for over 40 years. Even after the early announcement that President Reagan won the election in 1980, I still went to my polling place before closing time and cast my vote for him. My vote technically didn’t count because my candidate had already won but it was my duty as a citizen of this great country to cast my ballot.
If anyone should feel disheartened by voting and feeling as if her vote doesn’t count it should be me. I can’t remember one candidate or issue I’ve ever voted for here in the Pacific Northwest that has actually won. I live in an overwhelmingly liberal community and I am in the very small minority when it comes to candidates and issues. But I still vote for my candidate knowing with 99.999% certainty that he’s going to lose. I still vote against every tax hike that comes along even though I know that the people here on the island love taxes. I lose every time but I still vote.
The idea of paying someone to vote is just wrong.
I don’t get it, but if you do, God bless you.
