I'm Worth a Million in Prizes

In the latest example of the menace posed by the initiative and referendum process, the state of Arizona will vote in November on a measure that will award a $1 million prize to a random voter. Funny that they say random voter, I makes me think of some ignoramus stepping unprepared into the voting booth and going eenie meenie minie moe.
Besides the fact that federal law prohibits offering or receiving an expenditure to any person to vote or to withhold a vote, this is simply disasterous policy with the aim of increasing voter turnout. Consider those polls where people are givin a list of ten statements that happen to be the Bill of Rights, and are asked which ones they approve or disapprove. An alarming proportion of the public give Thomas Jefferson a failing grade.These are the people we are encouraging to vote. I say we should require them to pass a short quiz on American history and government first. Failing that, they can then go back to watching Wheel of Fortune. I’ll wrap with a line from H.L.Mencken: “ Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”