Offer financial incentive to vote

Dear Editor: Upon reading various letters to this paper, the underlying theme seems to be that no government has a real majority. This stems from the fact that not a lot of us bother to vote. Since the government spends buckets of money informing us when and where to vote, why not provide an incentive to get us to the polls.

This could be accomplished by making voting a financially mandatory exercise. This could be done with a receipt for voting. By inserting your receipt in your tax return, you could get a $10 credit against your tax payable (bottom line calculation).

If you choose not to vote (no receipts), add $100 to your tax payable. All letters must be signed with first and

names (no pseudonyms), and addresses and daytime telephone numbers must be included to verify authenticity. Third-party submissions will not be accepted.

With letters, the general rule of thumb is the shorter the better. Letters of a few paragraphs are always the best-read ones. No letter may exceed 400 words — no exceptions — and priority will be given to shorter letters.

The Herald reserves the right to edit any letter for space, clarity, libel or overall good taste. While we attempt to run as many letters as possible, there is no guarantee a letter will be published or as to what date it will run.

Letters can be mailed to Penticton Herald, 101-186 Nanaimo Ave. W, Penticton, B.C., V2A 1N4, dropped off at the office, faxed to the editor at 250-492-2403 or e-mailed to: letters@pentictonherald.ca. Our preference is by e-mail, whenever possible.