In Which Melina Overdoses on News

Last night the Urban Caballero hosted an election party. He printed up gigantic scoreboards where we could track all the Senate, House, and governorship races in play. Every time a new result was announced, the two party-goers who were actually paying attention would holler at him, and he would race over to the scoreboard and mark the result. (Frequently, we would holler something incorrect, and would get chastised.) His friends are a decidedly urban group of damas and caballeros, but many of them are still registered to vote in the important swing states where they grew up. So you'd think these people could make a serious impact on the outcomes of these close races. However, only two of them voted. (Melina, who missed the absentee deadline for her North Carolina ballot, was not one of these two). We were discussing that this was not a good state of affairs.

The Urban Caballero commented that he was distressed that he did not receive an "I voted" sticker when he voted. This led us into a discussion about voting incentives. Can you imagine what would happen if everyone who voted got a free candy bar or souvenir? Perhaps something similar to what can be found inside a Happy Meal or Kinder Egg. It would cost our country about ten cents per person, and I'm sure voting turnout would increase 10%, at least. People are pretty simple that way. If you vote in an election, you get a horrible middle-aged guy with bad hair who talks like he knows what you want. And within the next two years, you usually end up hating him. If you buy a Kinder Egg, by contrast, you get little bit of good chocolate and a really fun toy. Don't you think that would offset the pain of voting, just a little bit?