Hey, you should vote because it's important

Now begins the obligatory Election Day column on voting.

First, I say something profound like, “Hey, you should vote, because it's important.” Then I inevitably hear from someone who says “I'm glad most people don't vote, because most people don't know much.”

I've never bought into the persistent idea that low voter turnout really means that our elections are being decided by an elite force of hyper-informed, super-attentive voters. For one thing, the results don't always scream “smart.”

Motivation does not equal wisdom. Nor do I think apathy is spawned by stupidity. Some of the smartest people I know could give a rip about politics. And some political junkies I know, well, let's just say their voting booths are short a few levers. People vote or don't vote for lots of reasons, reasonable and less so. I vote like crazy, but even my record has some regretable gaps.

Still, I think we're all better off with high turnout than with malignant disinterest.

This is not fashionable thinking in the nation today. Instead, momentum is behind making voting less like breathing the free, sweet air of democracy and more like clearing airport security. Bring plenty of identification. Don't look suspicious.

Several more states now require voters to present photo identification at the polls. Backers of those measures, mostly Republicans, in Iowa and elsewhere insist showing an ID secures the “integrity” of the ballot.

Pour me a shot of skepticism. Don't worry, I've got ID.

For starters, it seems like sending in the 1st Armored Division to kill a cockroach. The largely small, hypothetical threat posed by fake voters seems less significant than the more likely threat of discouraging even a few real American voters lacking proper ID, for whatever reason. We've paid too high a price for voting rights to let them be denied to anyone on a technicality.

A financial giant that sinks a mountain of money into securities backed by toxic, overvalued assets gets billions from our government to heal its boo-boo. No worries. A voter who mistakingly shows up to vote without a photo ID is denied the ability to cast a ballot that counts on Election Day, because we're worried about fraud. The republic is saved.

Make photo IDs easily available and free for all, and we can talk about it. Otherwise, “integrity” is just shorthand for telling voters you don't happen to value to beat it, scram. And maybe even some you do value.

Or, perhaps, we should just make voting mandatory. In Sunday's New York Times, William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, argued for such a requirement, as is the law in Australia and 30 other nations. People vote or face a small, traffic ticket-sized fine. We're already required to pay taxes, renew licenses, etc. Surely voting is as important.

I'm skeptical it would ever fly here, and of Galston's claim that our politics would become civil if our parties didn't need to drive their base to the polls with red-meat rhetoric. But I'm also intrigued. He argues it might be worth a limited try at the state level.

Now, the obligatory ending. Please vote today.