04/26/12: Don’t be a free rider

This op-ed appeared in The Virginian-Pilot on the date shown.

ON TUESDAY, voters in Nor-folk and Chesapeake, along with Williamsburg, Hampton and Newport News, will go to the polls to elect local candidates. Or, rather, some voters will go.

If history is a guide, the vast majority — more than 90 percent in Norfolk, for example — will stay home and let others make the choice for them.

The continuous election cycle here in Virginia is part of the problem. So is the legacy of the Byrd machine. But recent studies point to a larger problem that permeates — and threatens — our democracy: free riding.

In the simplest terms, free riders choose to not act because they presume others will act for them. Study after study has pointed out that the larger the group of people who could act to address a problem, the less likely it is that anyone would do so.

The U.S. Constitution is said to have been written, in part, to address the free-rider problem. Under the Articles of Confederation , the states were to provide resources to run the central government but often did not, each waiting for others to contribute.

The most egregious example was the request by the Continental Congress to the states for $45 million to fund the Continental Army at the height of the Revolutionary War. The states sent nothing.

No doubt the states were to benefit from winning the war, just as you and I benefit from competent local leadership. But we gain that benefit whether we contribute to it or not. It is far easier to just let somebody else do it.

Besides, we think our contribution, in money or time, is unlikely to affect the result. Rare is the case where an election is decided by one vote. Rarer is the case where it’s decided by $50 in spending or an hour in volunteer time. And contrary to the belief of campaigns, yard signs don’t vote.

When you combine the lack of influence on the process with the costs associated with exercising that influence, it’s clear why many people choose not to partake.

Contributing $50 to a campaign means $50 that couldn’t be spent on a movie night out. Volunteering an hour to a campaign means less time to attend a kid’s baseball game. Taking the time to become informed about the candidates is time that could be spent reading a pleasurable novel.

So we hitch a free ride, hoping others will send money, volunteer and check out the candidates.

All well and good — if those others think like we do. But what happens when they don’t? The process becomes skewed in favor of those who do participate, i.e., decisions are made by those who show up.

Perhaps the one thing most bothersome to me about free riding is the reduction in available information. The fewer who request information, the less information will be produced.

In a speech at Vanderbilt University in May 1963, President John F. Kennedy said, “The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.”

As newspapers and their staffs have shrunk in size, so has the coverage of candidates and the issues. The likelihood that voters are ignorant of the candidates’ positions increases dramatically, leaving the few who are participating in the process to make choices based on other criteria.

Politicians, crafty though they might be, aren’t stupid. I perused the ads in the The Pilot’s Compass and the Clipper sections Sunday to see what the candidates were saying about themselves. Very little in terms of specifics but plenty to give voters other criteria on which to base their choices.

As the free-riding problem has expanded, politicians have evolved into sound bite machines, often spouting half-truths or, in some cases, outright lies. Who is going to challenge them on it? Certainly not the free-riding electorate.

It is a little late for New Year’s resolutions but not too late to resolve to be less of a free rider.

If you are among the more than 90 percent of Norfolk voters or the more than 80 percent of Chesapeake voters who didn’t participate in local elections four years ago, there’s time between now and Tuesday to do something about it.

Check out the candidates — most of them have websites to facilitate this. Read or re-read the endorsement editorials.

And then go vote Tuesday.