On Voter Participation Rates

I've always been a bit skeptical of the people who loathe the low voter participation rates in this country in a vacuum. That is, they think that all other things constant, raising the level of voter registration is necessarily a good thing.

This is not so.

A new Harris poll released today and getting some news coverage says that only 1/3 of Americans will claim to be somewhat well-versed in American politics (they claim similar rates of ignorance of the world outside our borders, too).

While it's hard to quantify what exactly qualifies as being 'in the dark' about politics, this poll should not surprise us and gives fuel to my contention that it's a good thing so many people stay home on election day rather than soiling the ballot box with their derived-from-who-knows-where opinions on things.

I'm always amazed, in the last week or so before an election and the number of registered voters who will tell a pollster that they are still undecided. Now big decisions call for serious thought, but if you honestly believe that the majority of those people are undecided because they really can't, after hours of research, decide whether Social Security solvency means more to them than the other guy's proposed Iran policy, I'll have some of what you're smoking, please.

Practically no one who is planning on voting should be undecided in the week or two before an election.
Sure, the ideal thing would be to have an educated populous, and it's something worth talking about. But until that happens, I'm not exactly praying for anyone to Rock the Vote in 2008 any more than I am for a hole in the head.