What Voteria Taught Me
Big Education Ape: Whatever you call it, bribing voters is a bad idea - LA Times http://bit.ly/1HQdySc
Afew months ago I was approached by Antonio Gonzalez the President of Southwest Voter Education Registration Project to help with a project that eventually became named “Voteria”. The concept while controversial was simple. Southwest Voter, a nonprofit dedicated to voter engagement for the last 40 years, would offer a $25K cash sweepstakes that anybody in LAUSD Board District 5 would be entered into if they were registered or became registered and voted in the May 5th election.
The controversy that followed was predictable while the outcome was not. Personally, like most in the small group of people directly involved in leading the project, I was skeptical of it. But I was always taught that skepticism is good and should not be a barrier to discovery, so I joined the effort. The contest moved forward and in fact there is a study conducted by Center for the Study of Los Angeles on the impact of the Voteria that you can see here.
What I learned is that many people, organizations, and institutions base their political strategy on the fact that Latinos vote in numbers far below our potential.
What I learned is that many people, organizations, and institutions base their political strategy on the fact that Latinos vote in numbers far below our potential.
The study stands on it’s own, but what I personally learned from the effort is an area not yet explored by that study or any study. What I learned is that many people, organizations, and institutions base their political strategy on the fact that Latinos vote in numbers far below our potential. In addition, I learned that not all of the entities betting on our lack of participation are conservative.
There were certainly critics who were philosophically opposed to offering financial or material incentives for civic engagement and they posited fair and reasoned objections. However much to my surprise the vast majority of the Voteria critics were concerned that the contest would actually work. I heard with consistency from people who openly worried that Latinos would turn out and vote for a candidate who had not been endorsed by their favored leadership. Quite frankly, that is a position that I find to be shameful. While there are legitimate arguments against Voteria type efforts, worries that it might get people to the polls is not one of them. I believe that hoping Latinos won’t vote so your candidate can win is even worse than what the LA Times Editorial board referred to as “bribing” people to vote.
Look at the first L.A. Times editorial criticizing Voteria, which stated that if the effort were to be successful that it would be “… a troubling precedent that could easily devolve into an arms race among interest groups trying to get out their votes to influence an election.” Now wouldn’t that be an unprecedented shame?
Someone should let the LA Times editorial board and others know that interest groups spend Voteria Project:
