One more thought about efforts to increase voter turnout

One last thought for the day about efforts to increase voter turnout --- Is that always a good thing?

I know people who say, and I'm sure they weren't kidding, that they decide for whom to vote (if they vote) by looking at photos and deciding who is the best looking candidate. I have heard from others that they decide for whom to vote by deciding whose name looks or sounds the most interesting, or the most similar to the voter's ethnic background. And I have even heard of people who vote for the candidate whose name is first on the list, or last. Also, despite the effectiveness of door knocking, do we really want people to vote simply based on who happened to knock on their doors?

What we're seeking, of course, is an informed electorate that goes to the polls in large numbers and makes decisions based on which candidates' policies best match the voters' desires. Simply adopting policies to get more people to vote, without their being informed, may hurt our community rather than helping.

So, the question becomes how do we motivate more people to learn more about elections and candidates, and then how do we motivate them to actually vote. Or to put it another way, how can we get candidates to seriously inform the electorate and thus motivate the voters to look forward to making their decisions among the candidates when they vote?