By Steve Byas

Every election we hear the same blather – bemoaning the fact that we have a low voter turn-out. In fact, it is a widespread assumption that it is a good thing if we have a larger participation in elections. Local news anchors look at each other and one says something like, “Well, Kelley, tomorrow is election day. Everyone needs to get out and vote,” and Kelley Newsman responds with something like, “Yes, Karen, they do.” He then turns to the camera and smiles. “It doesn’t matter who you vote for, but it is important that you vote.”

That is one of the most illogical inane comments there is, yet we hear it every election, like clockwork.

The truth is that if you have to be told that tomorrow is election day, and you have to be told that you need to vote, the reality is it would better if you did not vote. If it is not important who you vote for, then why is it important to vote at all?

Think about this. If voting is so important – and it really is – do we really want to encourage the politically illiterate to cast a ballot? After all, the reason an uninformed voter should not vote is because the results of an election are important.

The dirty little secret is this: most uninformed voters, when they do show up to vote, vote for the more liberal candidates. You know, candidates who are more likely to vote to raise your taxes, increase the regulatory burden on business, and add more laws to the statute books.

This is why Democrats are always pushing for more ignorant voters to show up. They usually don’t put it quite that way, but former First Lady Michelle Obama almost did recently. “Here’s something I just want to make sure people understand: Voting does not require any kind of special expertise. You know, you don’t need to be – have some fancy degree to be qualified to vote. You don’t have to read every news article to be qualified to vote.”

Just what does qualify one to vote? Well, Mrs. Obama had the answer, her answer anyway: “You need to have opinions about the issues in your community. That’s what qualifies you to vote.”

Really? She admitted that when she was 18 years old, “I didn’t know nothin’ about nothin’,” yet she voted.

When an uninformed Michelle Obama voter – who doesn’t know nothin’ about nothin’ – casts his or her ballot, it counts the same as that of an informed voter, who has taken time to read a newspaper article.

The truth is that the reason we don’t let two year olds have a driver’s license is because their driving affects others in society. So does a vote. One’s vote should be cast in an intelligent manner. It should be taken very seriously.

Instead, get-out-the-vote drives follow the fallacious reasoning of Mrs. Obama in putting the cart before the horse. What we need are more informed voters. We don’t need some army of know-nothings descending upon the polls, casting an ignorant ballot, and collecting one of those silly “I voted” stickers, which makes it appear as though you have stormed the beaches of Normandy or something.

Why do you think we have such a terrible Congress and such a terrible Legislature? Until we change the electorate, we are going to continue to get what we have now. As they say, garbage in, garbage out.