Turnout -- Maybe We're Looking at This the Wrong Way

The Washington Post reported on recent studies by the Center for the Study of the American Electorate and the Brookings Institution about low voter turnout in the 2014 primaries around the country.

The bottom line --- "The core problem of participation does not reside in the realm of procedure but rather in motivation."

So perhaps most of the recommendations presented last week by the MoCo Right to Vote Task Force to the County Council we looking completely at the wrong issues. No matter how easy we make it for people to vote, if they are not motivated it won't matter.

How can people be motivated to vote?

Make it clear to them how much government affects their lives, incomes, families, and everything else. Even then, if it's not clear that different candidates will affect voters' lives differently, that still won't matter.

Talk about civic responsibility and the "obligation" to vote? Does haranguing work?

Perhaps efforts to make the campaigning process appear more rational and worthwhile to the voters are the key.

What else can motivate more of the members of the intelligent and often civic-minded electorate of our county that it is helpful to them and others to vote? That, and not focus on such things as easier registration and scaled voting, should probably be the real focus of discussion and suggested recommendations for those who are interested in seeing increasing voter participation.