Should We Pay People to Vote?

By Anvitha Mattapalli & Sahithi Lingampalli, Edited By Cindy Zhang, Myint Myat Theingi, & Mridula Divakar, Art By Evelyn Chen, Layout By Harini Akurathi, & Blogged By Taruni Manam

No.

It’s common knowledge that many western nations, including the U.S.A., have reached record low voter turnout rates in recent years. This is a serious issue because 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 only correspond to what they saw on television advertisements or what their friends and family tell them, especially if they are paid by members running for re-election. This will only further skew the results of the election.

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.

Low voter turnout rates is a prominent issue in our society. Paying people to vote may increase voter turnout rates, but the effects of it will skew the results of the election until it is no longer representative of the population as a whole. While paying people to vote is not ideal, it is a start. It will take some time before we can come up with a solution that truly benefits society.

No.

The main reason such an idea exists is because, theoretically, it is a potentially effective method to manage fluctuating voter turnout rates. Even though the 2020 voter turnout was high, numbers were still not ideal since only around 60% of the eligible voter population actually casted ballots (Foreign Policy).

One of the main reasons for low voter turnout has been linked to low family income. For example, families with 5 thousand dollars or less had the lowest voter turnout in their group (48%), whereas the group with 150 thousand dollars or higher had the highest voter turnout in their group (86%) in 2016(EconoFact). This shows that high family income leads to higher voter turnout, perhaps because these families can afford education and hence know the importance of voting, unlike poorer families. Therefore, it is evident that providing a monetary incentive will encourage people to vote more, either because they can educate themselves better by being able to access electronics and the internet or by simply being able to afford transportation means to reach voting centers.

Overall, this is a reasonable solution. However, there are a lot of factors that play into voting. First off, you need time, as well as skills, such as being able to read information on the election, and good health to travel if needed, all of which will not be solved by simply having more money. That is, even if one did have time, if they are unable to read, they cannot vote. If one could read, but couldn’t step outside of, say, a hospital, they cannot vote. Additionally, voting without proper knowledge of the candidates, measures, or propositions, can leave voters misinformed and reduce the accuracy of government representation, doing the opposite of what a financial incentive set out to do.

Essentially, voting should remain the way it is — doing it as your civic responsibility and not for a reward. Yes, the government should invest in awareness campaigns and making voting more easy and accessible, but an incentive will simply make people vote for money instead of encouraging them to vote for representation.

References

Titmuss, R. M., Oakley, A., & Ashton, J. (1997). The gift relationship: From human blood to social policy. Palmer, J. & Wilson, A. (2020, November 03). Historic U.S. Turnout still lags behind major democracies. Foreign Policy. Retrieved April 12, 2021, from https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/11/03/historic-united-states-voter-turnout-2020-election-behind-other-democracies-global/ Akee, R. (2020, September 24). Voting and income. EconoFact. Retrieved April 12, 2021, from https://econofact.org/voting-and-income

By Evelyn Chen

By Evelyn Chen