To be fair, this is a
slight misnomer.
It's actually paying people to walk into a voting booth on election day.
What they actually DO in that booth is their business, though it should involve paper ballots, and shouldn't be juxtaposed very personal bodily functions.
There are two parts to this proposal, which would best be implemented by initiative petition:
- Make election day (only the regular ones, not special elections, it gets pricy in a place like California). Require that all employees get paid time off on that day, or time and a half. (An amendment to require double-time would be considered friendly).
- Give every voter a modest sum (20 bucks sounds good to me) when they vote.
I actually know of a liberal radio host Lavelle Diet has endorsed fining people for not voting, but I prefer the carrot to the stick.
At first glance, it seems wasteful, but I think that in the long run, this is a very wise, and fairly inexpensive (it might cost about $33 $330 million in California if half the population voted).
So, am I genius, or a moron?