Jonah Goldberg looks at Mark Osterloh of Tucson, Arizona; the bright spark who wants to combine voting with a lottery (as opposed to voting on a lottery):

His idea, which has received undue national attention, is simple: If you vote, you’re automatically entered in a drawing for $1 million — and perhaps some fabulous consolation prizes too! His proposal will be on the November ballot in Arizona, and he hopes it will revolutionize the country by enlisting the lottery-line crowd to fix our democracy. He even has a slogan: “Who wants to be a millionaire? Vote!”

Osterloh, an ophthalmologist and political activist (he ran for governor by bicycling throughout the state a few years ago), is one of those classic American cranks who has the audacity to take our civic clichés seriously. Since the civil-rights era, Americans have been indoctrinated with the message that voting is the essential yardstick of citizenship. Editorialists, civics teachers, and an assortment of deep-thinking movie stars residing in Periclean Hollywood have gone to great lengths to tell Americans that voter apathy is, in and of itself, a terrible evil and that, conversely, high voter turnout is a sign of civic health.

Indeed, for several years, voting-rights activists have been pushing to give prison inmates and younger teenagers the right to vote, presuming that giving rapists, killers, and Justin Timberlake fans a bigger say will improve our democratic process.

* * *

What is surprising about Osterloh’s wacky idea is that the franchise maximizers hate it. The New York Times dubbed it “daft” and “one of the cheesier propositions on the November ballot.” USA Today called it “tawdry.” Fair enough.

But I think part of the reason they’re so scandalized is that Osterloh is taking their logic to its natural conclusion. Advocates of increasing voter turnout already frame the issue in terms of “what’s in it for you.” MTV’s condescending “Choose or Lose” campaign, which aims to get 18- to 30-year-olds to vote, says it all right there in the name; the gravy train is leaving the station and the ballot is your ticket onboard.

Just beneath the surface of much of this voter activism is the assumption that increased turnout would move American politics to the left, by redistributing wealth to the poor and “disenfranchised.” There’s probably some merit here, which explains why so many get-out-the-vote groups are proxies for the Democratic Party. But that doesn’t change the fact that they are trolling for votes among people who don’t appear to take their citizenship very seriously. Osterloh’s bribery scheme merely exposes this motivation in a way that embarrasses voter activists.

Osterloh admits that he’s motivated by more than democracy worship. “One of the goals that I’ve had in my lifetime is to see that all Americans have healthcare like every other major country on Earth. One of the ways to do that is to make sure that everybody votes.” At least he’s honest about it.

If you can't spare the time from watching sit-coms to go check out a few facts one evening at your local library, with the help of your local librarian, then don't pretend that you are a responsible voter, or even a responsible parent.