The state of Arizona is making a play for the distinction of implementing one of the absolute worst ideas ever to promote good citizenship.

With the ostensible goal of increasing interest in voting and thereby voter turnout, Arizonans will be faced this November with what is known as the Voter Reward Act. It is a referendum that would create a million dollar lottery awarded to a randomly chosen voter who cast a ballot in any given election. In other words, bribery.

The only real wonder is that it has taken so long to come to this.

Over a decade ago, in response to the manufactured crisis of low-voter registration rates, the federal government mandated that states begin registering people to vote when they received driver’s licenses and at agencies providing welfare related assistance. It also mandated that states allow mail-in voter registration.

Aside from the obvious problem of federalism (does anyone even worry about such niceties any more?), it also created several other problems. It made the job of committing voter fraud much easier, (“mail-in” registration!), and it made it more difficult for states to purge their rolls of inactive voters, (names which are more likely to be used in cases of fraud.)

The law did actually do one thing its supporters suggested, it increased the raw number of Americans registered to vote. What it didn’t do was make these newly minted voters any more interested in participating in the civic process than they were to begin with. As a result, the overall percentage of registered voter turnout dropped, which in turn gave the politicians a new dragon to slay – low voter turnout.

In response, many states have suffered under an array of new “solutions”, such as absentee balloting for no reason whatsoever, which then evolved into “early voting” in some states starting the balloting process as much as thirty days before Election Day (an increasingly meaningless term).

Oregon took it a step further and moved to an entirely mail-in balloting system, while others have moved to Election Day voter registration which allows you to both register and vote at the same time.

Those are just the bad ideas that have actually been tried. Some progressive agitators are even calling for doing away with registration entirely, while others have proposed that the federal government force states to drop prohibitions against felons voting once they’re out of prison. Worse yet, some (such as Jesse Jackson) advocate letting criminals vote from the comfort of their jail cells. No increase in the chance of fraud there.

Simultaneously, these intrepid progressives have opposed measures that would actually reduce the opportunities to commit voter fraud. Most notably, laws that require the production of a photo ID when you show up at the polls, in order to prove that you are indeed who you say you are. Shouldn’t we demand at least as much security in our election process as we do over cashing a check at the bank?

Now comes Arizona with the latest scheme, bribing people to vote. State sponsored lotteries are bad enough but “election” lotteries? And what kind of signal does this send to those who are already inclined to vote more than once? It’s an invitation to fraud, plain and simple.

What’s next, scratch-and-win ballots? How about making everyone who votes in two or three consecutive elections eligible for a “Powerball” style election lottery? I should probably stop giving them ideas.

Any scheme that opens the door to more fraud is always portrayed as absolutely necessary, while anything that seeks to make the process more honest and secure is portrayed as a violation of someone’s civil rights. And it’s all a load of bunk unless you’re worried about the voting rights of illegal aliens, criminals, or dead people.

What this is really about, ultimately, is naked political gamesmanship. Liberals want a more open process that would create more opportunities for fraud because they know by experience that it works – for them. It has been a regular part of their get-out-the-vote strategy for decades.

This doesn’t even begin to address the issue of how “interested” we truly want those who cast ballots to be. Do we really want the participation of those that don’t care enough to register to vote? Or people who just don’t want to wait in line at the polls on Election Day?

And do we really want people to vote who otherwise wouldn’t do so unless they were bribed with a shot a million dollar payday?

Citizenship isn’t just about rights and benefits. It’s also about responsibility. Our problem is that we have too many politicians who want to coddle people into forgetting that fact.

Drew McKissick is a Columbia, SC based political consultant.  He regular blog is maintained at Conservative Outpost.