Non-voters: Please, don’t try Australia

One of our family's favorite children's books was "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day." It tells the tale of a boy who has one of those days where everything goes wrong and he finally whines, "I think I'll move to Australia!" Well, if you were one of the nearly 80 percent of registered voters who chose not to vote in last week's Coeur d'Alene City Council elections, don't be like Alexander.

If you have any complaints about the city or growth or taxes or traffic, you'd better not cry out "I think I'll move to Australia." Because in Australia you would get a $20 fine for not voting. And if you didn't pay the fine within 21 days, the cost would go up. And up again. Then your driver's license would be revoked and it would be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad situation. All for not voting. There are 32 countries in the world that have required voting, and anyone who fails to vote gets some type of consequence.
In our country, the consequence for not voting is getting the government, policies and taxes you didn't choose. I think that might be the most terrible, horrible outcome ever. Our freedom is seriously at risk when large numbers of our citizens don't participate in the voting process.

There are many theories bantered about concerning the low voter turnout in last week's election. One side says people didn't vote because they are pleased with the way things are right now in our fair city. But that argument doesn't ring true in my book because this was a very close election. If the citizens were so thrilled with the status quo, why didn't hordes of happy people come out to vote for the incumbents?

The other argument is that people didn't vote because they feel disconnected from local government; they don't think their vote matters or their opinion is valued. This theory makes more sense to me. All across the country, voter apathy is becoming an alarming issue. A poll of students at New York University was reported this week, showing that 20 percent would sell their vote in the next presidential election for an iPod, and half said they'd forfeit their right to vote forever for $1 million. Obviously, these students don't value their vote. Not like the soldiers who gave their lives for our rights and freedoms.

The big question is how do we get people empowered to vote? National experts say there are two big predictors for who will vote: Education and habits. Education helps voters understand the issues on the ballot and good voting habits help remove the common roadblocks like time, procedure and polling location. But education of our citizens has to go further.

We need a voter information guide! It is long overdue. Let's get a bi-partisan committee together to create a template that can be used for future elections. Dan English, county clerk, agrees with this concept and says "the end product should be objective and informational without reflecting anyone's personal biases in any way." The voter's guide should be mailed to each household of a registered voter and should be paid for with public dollars.

Let's also have some drives to register new voters before the elections. This would be a great high school government class project for both schools. I realize Idaho is a same-day registration state, but having the paperwork done in advance and the location of the polling place already clarified will remove two more barriers to voter motivation.

If we want to tackle this problem of voter apathy, we need to work together as a community. We must motivate and educate our citizens so we can establish good voting habits and reinforce our democracy. My favorite habit is freedom and it would be terrible, horrible, no good and very bad to lose it.