Today’s Kernel had a story about Student Government’s “Ballot Bash”, an event to encourage students to vote in next week’s election. I’m all in favor of inciting political enthusiasm in the younger generation (unless they’re Republicans), but, in spite of the positive spin from the organizers and the reporter, crunching the numbers in that story would make any career politician cringe.
The event reportedly was attended by “more than 150 people”, and “the $26,000 event came in under budget”. Those numbers are a little vague, but even interpreting them generously, if they got 200 people and spent $20,000, that’s $100 per head. And those weren’t even definite voters!!
I’ve worked with “vote-haulers” since before I was old enough to vote under my own name. I realize there has been some inflation over the years, but no political operative would dream of a “voter recruitment” budget of $100/vote. I remember the days of dollar bills and half-pints, along with strong reminders from the campaign boss that a single voter just got a couple of drinks, not the whole bottle. And that was on Election Day, when the voter was actually “in custody” and on the way to the polls. I remember a story about sherriff’s deputies having to pull a candidate off of his campaign manager in the courthouse on Election Night, when the totals were reported and the candidate realized he didn’t even get as many votes as the manager had charged him for buying. I’d love to hear what some of the old guard would say about shelling out this kind of money a week early on “voters” who might not even show up to vote next week.
“Under $26,000” for “more than 150” kids who might be too hung over to vote on Tuesday. (Since it’s a campus holiday, most of them will probably blow off classes on Monday and make it a 4-day binge). You call that a bargain? Give me half that much money, and I’ll deliver more than twice that many voters to the polls on Tuesday, and guarantee that they vote, and vote for the right candidate. These Student Government kids have got a lot to learn if they think they can pull this kind of crap in the real political world.