Rational morons

[4sigma]

In my poli sci classes, one of our discussions was on why voter turnout was so low. We discussed the phenomenon of the rationally ignorant voter. The idea was that a voter's effort required to become informed, make the trip to the polling place, stand in line, etc., was more of a burden to them than the utility of their expected gain by voting, since their individual vote was extremely unlikely to affect the outcome of any given ballot item.

I propose that the problem we have been seeing with voting equipment is a similar phenomenon: the rationally moronic voter.

There is a certain amount of effort required to insert your paper ballot into the machine properly, read and understand the voting instructions, and to verify that your chads perforated correctly. For many voters, the utility of potentially affecting the outcome of the election may be less than the amount of effort this requires. Therefore they rationally choose to risk the possibility that their ballot is miscounted rather than expend the effort to make sure that their vote is counted as they intended.

[Harry]

Phew! I thought this would be a thread about our current administration. Now I realize it says "Rational" not "Irrational" morons.

[4sigma]

No, Harry, I'm not talking about Davis. Start your own thread!

[Dr T Non-Fan]

Since it will be difficult to raise the utility of the voting process, we should work on lessening the effort and increasing the accuracy.

Touch-screen voting would work best, especially if one can perform the voting duty at work (not at one's desk but within the building), instead of driving out of one's way, fighting the extra traffic near the polling place, etc. Name and number go into the computer, which then brings up your specific ballot. You could vote anywhere, instead of the local garage or school. Checking of your identification would still have to be done, and it could also be done by central computer, which crosses you off the "voted" list, so you can't vote often.
Increase in costs of monitors and internet connections can be balanced against the pages currently printed with names on them, the printed ballots, the garbage caused by all that paper, etc.
It would take a proposition, since it's clear that the last thing on any elected official's mind is changing the way he was elected into office.

[2pac Shakur]

Couldn't be by design.
The fact that USA voting turnout gets lower and lower.
Almost seems like the powers that be want it that way.
It's not in our corrupt govt.'s best interest for more people to get involved.
And of course the govt. is going to blame it on the "moronic masses".
But to majority of people outside of polisci classes, the world isn't that simple.

How hard would it be to get more people to vote?
How hard would it be to design a simple ballot?
Not difficult.
I know, blame it on the morons.

[Truth Soldier]

Is more people voting always better? Why is it so utterly important to count the vote of someone who can't figure out if he's voted correctly?

Not that I'm advocating disenfranchisement or anything, but there have to be bigger problems in American government today.

[WidgetNinja]

To the contrary, we have done nothing but make voting too easy.

Literacy tests, gone.
Motor-voter registration horse crap.
You don't even have to show up, you can do an absentee ballot.

How can it be that the people that benefit from this arrangement have valuable input, other than "Yeah, I want some of that pie".

Voters should have to pass basic fact tests (like "where does money come from?") before even being allowed to get their vote placed. The current level of stupidity in the voting block was not something envisioned by the founders. The result: lots and lots of stupid laws.

[E. Blackadder]

Originally Posted by 2Pac Shakur

Couldn't be by design.
The fact that USA voting turnout gets lower and lower.
Almost seems like the powers that be want it that way.
It's not in our corrupt govt.'s best interest for more people to get involved.
And of course the govt. is going to blame it on the "moronic masses".
But to majority of people outside of polisci classes, the world isn't that simple.

How hard would it be to get more people to vote?
How hard would it be to design a simple ballot?
Not difficult.
I know, blame it on the morons.

It's not the ballot.
I see two issues:

1. Unresponsive government. Voting is in some sense analogous to naming a cat.
2. Districts are gerrymandered, so that outcomes are often predetermined. By now many have concluded (correctly) that there's no point in voting.

I think that #1 depends in part on #2.

There may be more issues, but I'm not in the Monty Python mood today.

[Dr T Non-Fan]

Originally Posted by E. Blackadder

Unresponsive government. Voting is in some sense analogous to naming a cat.

"Naming a cat." I find this hilarious for some reason.

[E. Blackadder]

From you, DTNF, I'll accept the compliment.