I want to applaud the Pamela and Raju Foundation for their bold attempt to encourage voter participation in the Philadelphia election. They offered $10,000 as a lottery prize to the voters for exercising their constitutional rights. Bridget Conroy-Varnis, a crossing guard, won the prize. 

I have written before about having a national lottery to encourage voter turnout. In the alternative, we could have a law which fines people for not voting. Australia and Brazil have such a law. Or we could require that for every dollar anyone spends to become president, one dollar would have to go into a national lottery. The projected payment would be one half-billion dollars for the national lottery. And if 90 percent of the people went to the polls, we would have the second American Revolution. 

Bemoaning the fact that not enough people vote accomplishes nothing. The challenge is to have a concrete proposal even if it is a "gimmick" or a "law." Until then, the Editorial Board for the Day should stop complaining.

Under present federal law this proposal might be illegal but then Citizen's United is not illegal. A national lottery could be made legal. See Los Angeles and Arizona initiatives.

Dave Falvey

Groton