At 01:40 PM 13/11/00 -0800, Brian D Williams wrote:
> everyone who votes gets a quick pick for a shot at a
> million bucks.
>I've never seriuosly suggested this because it would attract the
>very people I would prefer to just stay home. Also why I hope for
>bad weather on election day.
They don't deserve a say in their own future? Even as a jest, this is a
creepy implication, and one I have sometimes detected lurking beneath the
surface of many posts on this list (not to say brandished with big flashing
lights). [pre-emptive apologies to Brian; I do not mean that *he* is
creepy, just that the suggestion is]
In reality, all sort of outcomes could follow. The bored or incompetent
could find it easiest to spoil their votes, thereby voiding their allegedly
worthless or malign opinions anyway. Or you might find an enhanced `donkey
vote' as it's called in Australia, where voters start at the top and number
down (in the silly non-preferential US system I assume that means the
candidate at the top of the ballot picks up the donkeys). But consider: in
Oz, where voting is compulsory and failure to turn out (even in bad
weather) attracts a fine, we tend to elect middle of the road standard
Western-style representatives. In the last election, all those thumb
sucking lottery besotted dolts voted in (by a small margin) a conservative
party, one that promised to reduce many social security benefits.
Damien Broderick
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