Extra votes for parents? – Sure, why not (says the parent)?

I do not support this so much as I admit that I would very much enjoy watching the frothing that would result if it were implemented:

This week, Chrystia Freeland praised the left-of-center Canadian economist Miles Corak’s recent call for “Demeny voting,” i.e., allowing mothers or custodial fathers to vote on behalf of their under-18 children. Corak details the idea in a recent report for Canada 2020:

Under such a voting system, just as society transfers economic resources to parents for the benefit of children, so it also transfers political resources. The actual design of a Demeny voting scheme requires discussion. Demeny suggested that each parent should be given the right to exercise an extra half vote for each child under their guardianship.

Admittedly, the idea itself of parents having extra votes appeals to me.  Not least because I’m familiar with the elements of the American Left who actually do have kids; their sudden importance in the electoral calculus will have a profound, and almost certainly beneficial, effect on the Democratic party’s policy positions.  Which is why, of course, the Democratic party leadership will never, ever support such a thing.

3 thoughts on “Extra votes for parents? – Sure, why not (says the parent)?”

  1. It would encourage replacement-level procreation. And can you imagine the extra level of hatred for the quiverfull folks?

  2. Which is why, of course, the Democratic party leadership will never, ever support such a thing.
     
    It would cause the Democratic party leadership to take up the cause in a freakin’ New York minute in the name of Fairness and Civil Rights. Giving extra votes to custodial fathers (how many of those are there?) and to mothers — but not to fathers in a married relationship — will suddenly multiply the votes of welfare moms who vote their “class interests.”

    Both men make quick work of the potentially daunting practicalities of the idea – how do you get a kindergartener to the polls? – by suggesting mothers vote for their children. That’s a data-backed view: Mothers are best at spending shared resources on their offspring, which is why state child support usually goes to them.

    Moe, you wouldn’t get a vote.

    1. Nah, my wife would split the extra votes with me. So would most of the conservative women that I know – well, not with me, but with their own spouses. Liberal dads are screwed, though.

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