Voting Lotteries

The average voter spends little time accumulating knowledge that would be useful for selecting candidates. This is not surprising given that each individual's vote is next to worthless, given that the probability of affecting the outcome is close to zero.

One way to encourage policy education by voters is to limit the number of those eligible to vote. The smaller the electorate, the more important each vote becomes. In order to preserve the principle of equality, the right to vote can be allocated through a random draw. Right after a presidential election, a small number of people could be selected, perhaps one per congressional district, who would have the right to vote in the next presidential election. Given the advance notice, they would have the chance to educate themselves on the relevant issues. Non-profit groups would probably be created to facilitate the education of voters. Public interest groups might even finance sabbaticals so that voters could study policy without the distraction of work.

Voters would be able to accept money for listening to policy presentations from special interest groups in the same way politicians accept campaign contributions. Given a secret ballot, these contributions could not buy votes, they could only buy access to present the special interest's story.

Currently, impersonal polls dominate the coverage of elections. Under a franchise lottery, voter surveys would be replaced by human interest stories, as each elector would hold immense sway. Moderate voters would become celebrities, as America would watch every aspect of their decision process.