Andrew Albright has published this student note in the California Law Review. Here is the abstract:

This Note explores the idea of paying Americans to cast their ballots as a mechanism to increase electoral participation among lower income voters and rebalance the influence that wealthy Americans have on policy outcomes. The Note begins by exploring the rationale behind the idea, drawing on political science, economic, and legal literature to argue that subsidizing the franchise could help rebalance elected officials’ perception of the “median voter” away from the wealthy. The Note hypothesizes that a small dollar incentive, perhaps no more than $20, paid in a municipal election would have a greater incentivizing effect on low-propensity, low-income voters than it would on higher-income voters. Next, the Note explores the legality and constitutionality of paying the voter. When President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, vote buying became illegal across the United States. Nevertheless, this Note argues that, based on the legislative history of the Act, a government program to incentivize voting would be legal under federal law. Further, neither the First nor the Fourteenth Amendment poses a barrier to such a program, and a local government in California could enact such a program without violating state law. Finally, the Note explores policy design, proposing that policymakers should begin in a local government, provide direct and highly visible subsidies, and allow voters who cast blank ballots to collect a subsidy.