Does democracy have a price?

How about $64 a vote? That's how much Dorrin Rolle spent for every vote cast in his favor in the Sept. 5 primaries. The Miami-Dade commissioner raised $408,060 to get 6,379 votes, for a job that pays $6,000 a year. Rolle's competitor, Phillip Brutus, spent $17.28 a vote -- enough to buy every sympathetic voter a bottle of Malbec, but not enough to win him the office.

The other winners for County Commission averaged somewhere in between:Katy Sorenson: $30 a vote. Rebeca Sosa, $31.65 a vote. The losers didn't come close. Take Millie Herrera, who spent just $5.45 a vote. Javier Souto outspent her by more than $25 a vote -- and won.

Dizzy? It's math that makes sense only in a rotting political system where big donors flood campaigns with cash and call it democracy.

GENIUS OF DESPAIR

''I think we should start paying people to vote,'' political activist Nancy Lee said in a mass e-mail after crunching the numbers. ``Really. I think most people would go out and vote for $50 and then we don't have to look at stupid ads anymore.''

Lee, who worked on several losing campaigns this season, has reason to be bitter. But her idea suggests the despairing genius of the true reformer.

Pay voters? Why not? Everyone else is paying the politicians. It's time voters got a cut of the action. If special interests can pour millions into local campaigns, the poor working stiff ought to at least be able to charge below-market rates for agreeing to participate in the great game.

''It couldn't get any worse than we have it now,'' Lee said.

For those appalled by the idea of cash for votes, there's another scheme to exchange votes for hope.

In November, Arizona voters will decide on a proposition that would give each voter a chance to win $1 million. If approved, the Arizona Voter Rewards Initiative would mean that every voter automatically would be entered in a lottery.

Doesn't matter if you don't know your Democrats from your donkeys; all that's required is the kind of self-interest that defines certain politicians and their slick handlers.

A more sober approach is offered by Americans for Campaign Reform (www.just6dollars.org).

The idea here is to help publicly finance federal election campaigns -- something that would, as the website's name suggests -- cost each taxpayer just $6.

The group counts both Republicans (former Sen. Warren Rudman) and Democrats (former Sen. Bill Bradley) as honorary chairs. Its board includes Hodding Carter III, past president and chief executive of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

''The corruption in the Congress has alerted the American people,'' said president John Rauh. ``The challenge is to let the public know there's a solution.''

DADE'S ATTEMPT

Miami-Dade used to have a pretty solid public financing law of its own until commissioners amended it to make it harder for candidates to qualify for public money.

Katy Sorenson was one of three commissioners who voted against the stricter rules. This year, she found herself scrambling for private cash like everyone else.

''Instead of spending my time doing more door to door, I spent a lot of time raising money,'' said Sorenson. ``If you want to stay competitive you really have to raise the money.''

The result is a cash race that troubles many candidates and voters alike. Is it any wonder so many choose to tune out?

After each dismal election turnout, talk turns to voter ''apathy,'' which sounds less like a valid description for what ails the system and more like a classic case of blaming the victim.

Voters aren't dumb; they see what big money has made of politics and they refuse to play along.

The people have taken the measure of things and decided that, all things being equal, they'd rather have that bottle of Malbec.