The Arizona Ballot

December 11th. 2006
Published in the New York Times Magazine, December 24th. 2006

The idea introduced to Arizona is one of the sillier ideas of the year. It is likely that adding an extrinsic reward (the hope of a lottery prize) to the vote will reduce the voters concentration on the election issues. It may get the voter to the poll -- and in Arizona there is a disincentive to vote as juries are drawn from the election rolls rather than from residency rolls -- but the voter's only goal will be to vote rather than to vote sensibly.
PS
If you are interested there is an unpublished op-ed here http://home.comcast.net/~evansmgmtutor/wsb/lettersandopeds/arizona.html.08.07.2006.html
and a discussion of the issue by Professors of Organizational Behavior here:
http://home.comcast.net/~evansmgmtutor/wsb/lettersandopeds/arizona.query.08.08.2006.html
New York Times Magazine version [ Please scroll down]