written by Anvitha mattapalli and Sahithi Lingampalli Edited by Cindy Zhang, Myint Myat Theingi,
& Mridula Divakar
art by evelyn chen LAYOUT BY HARINI AKURATHI
No. It’s common knowledge that many western nations, including the U.S.A., have reached record low voter turnout rates in recent years. The votes received from the few people who participate in elections may not necessarily reflect the views and values of the entire population, ultimately making the government far less representative of the general public than it should be.. One proposed--and debated--solution to low voter turnout is paying citizens to vote. This solution, however, does more harm than good. In the U.S.A., everybody above voting age has the right to vote. This includes those who are not educated on politics, the candidates running for office, or current events. If we pay these people to vote, their vote may not correspond to their true values, but rather television advertisements or what their friends and family tell them. This will only further skew the results of the election.
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Moreover, when people are offered incentives, they begin to work with motivation for the incentive instead of the purpose behind it. As a result, their motivation to do good by natural impulse decreases. An example of this is an experiment held in the United Kingdom, where after participants were paid to give blood, blood donations decreased. Since participants could receive money for giving blood, they did not want to give blood donations out of kind nature. There are strict laws preventing candidates from paying citizens to vote for them. However, if the government is paying people to vote, it will be far easier for candidates to get away with this. This is because candidates could claim that the government is paying people to vote instead of them paying people to vote for them.
