Holding legislative hearings on a non-mandate mandate seems apropos for government in this state.
Government, like life, is filled with all kinds of absurdities that run the gamut. Most are not worth discussing.
But every now and then comes a proposal that is so outlandishly stupid and unenforceable that it deserves a reasonable amount of ridicule.
That’s why today’s topic is H.B. 2718, legislation sponsored by Democratic state Reps. Maurice West and Anne Stava-Murray that would compel all eligible voters to cast a ballot in every general election.
Capitol Fax political analyst Rich Miller characterized the proposal as a “conversation bill.”
But a conversation about what?
The virtue of widespread participation in the democratic process. Or the vice of overweening government once again seeking to compel people to do what they otherwise prefer not to do.
While addressing a serious subject — low voter turnout — it is not and does not pretend to be a serious proposal. How so?
There is no means of enforcement. If those compelled to vote do not vote, there is no consequence for ignoring the law’s non-mandate. In that sense, it’s like Illinois’ loophole-ridden ethics law — all show.
One proponent defended the non-mandate legislation by arguing that government has the authority to compel people to vote because voting is akin to paying taxes, obeying traffic laws or serving on juries.
That contention may have a superficial appeal to some. But deciding what to do on Election Day is a much more individual decision than stopping at red lights to promote traffic safety.
Free people have the right to cast a ballot or not, just as they may favor one candidate over another, profess disdain for all candidates for every office, or simply be unconcerned enough not to be bothered.
Casting an informed ballot is, indeed, a civic virtue, and there is legitimate concern about low voting turnout in even-year general elections and odd-year spring elections.
Take the voter turnout at the last municipal election in Chicago. It was so low — 35 percent — that it raised a question about whether the public there has simply given up hope that the city can be properly and honestly government.
Who could blame Chicagoans if that is the case?
In that context, our elected officials would be better off giving the public something to vote for — like honest and effective government, financial efficiency, real ethics laws — than wasting their time jawing about symbolic legislation that pretends to compel civic virtue.
