Disappointing voter turnout in my precinct.

[Ducimus]

I didn't vote, because it doesn't make any difference. (yes, you heard me) I have no faith in either party, nor any candidates. I view it all as systemically broken. No matter who gets elected, everybody loses. The real power in this country isn't with the voter, but lobbiests, special interest groups, and corporate dollars. That never changes except for who's strings they are pulling.

I posted this before, i'll post it again.


Except for the reversal of "no right to complain", I think he's is 100% spot on. Though, in a sense, he's correct there as well because no matter who you vote for, the end result will be the same. So vote for one, or the other, either way your equally at fault when the politicians invariably do the exact same crap they always do.

Nothing short of a political revolution, and the breaking up of both party's, will anything ever change.

[Platapus]

If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the precipitate

or some thing like that.

That does not sound right.

[Ducimus]

If i had the option to cast my vote as "NONE OF THE ABOVE", i would have the perfect voting record.

Can you imagine that though? If they allowed that, it would turn the entire poltiical system on its head. What if "none of the above" got the majority vote?

Now THAT would be interesting.

[Platapus]

That would be interesting, but if that happened, we would be forced to keep the incumbent jerk in office while we dick around with run-off elections.

I don't think Americans would feel comfortable with run-off elections. We like our elections quick and clear. That is one of the reasons we are still stuck in a system where we really only have 2 viable parties despite actually having around 15 political parties (depending on the year).

The public probably does not want to know that we actually elect our President based on about 20-30% of the eligible votes.

Remember 2004? President Bush's "Mandate of the People" when he got re-elected. I use 2004 Bush as an example as I have the numbers. The same would, of course, apply to a Democratic Presidential Candidate.

According to the Federal Election Commission the voter turnout in 2004, was 56.7% (which is actually pretty good for the US) and of those votes, President Bush received 50.7% of them. This means that only 28.7% of the eligible voters voted for President Bush.

For comparison, in 2008, President Obama was "swept into office" with 30.3% of the eligible vote. A whole whopping 1.6% more than Bush. ohh another "Mandate"!

Pretty sad when a person can be elected President by garnering only 29% or 30% of the possible votes. The electoral college is great at concealing this from the public.

But since our elections are based on a plurality of only the votes cast, (actually the electoral college is based on this, but you know what I mean) we can delude ourselves that our Presidents are elected by the "majority", when in reality almost half of the eligible voters really don't give a crap who is president.

That's why I shake my head when any political party claims a "mandate from the people". The only mandate of the people is that about half don't give a crap. .

[Buddahaid]

Originally Posted by the_tyrant

why can't people internet vote or phone vote?
It would increase voter turnout drastically

Use absentee ballots if you want to vote on your own time. And the issues are too complicated for many (me) to understand well by design, just like taxes. This confusion allows people to be swayed by sound bites and red herring points. I try to avoid that by never reading anything sent in the mail except the voter guides for both the significant parties. The tripe goes from the mailbox to the recycling instantly.

[Ducimus]

I care. I just don't have faith in the jerkweeds we have to chose from, nor in the system that sustains them. It's like, gee, what do i have to choose from?

Candidate Blue: Dishonest jackwagon, power hungry, hypocritical, Takes funds from lobbiests.

Candidate Red: Dishonest jackwagon, power hungry, hypocritical, Takes corporate funds.


Really? Wow...... s'cuse me while i sit this one out.

[Platapus]

I used to hate voting in California in the 80's

We used to have issues worded thus,

Should the State Legislation be prevented from enacting legislation that would reverse the remanding of the exception to the law restricting tax expenditures increases to no more than an increase of 4% from the 1980 proposition xx which was not enacted.

HUH????

[Ducimus]

OH good christ, the attack ad's here suck. You NEVER hear anything positive. EVERYTHING is negative. But since california has this proposition system where's props are passed by the people, and props can only be removed by a majority vote of the people. Governer can't do jack about it.
The states constitution needs to be tossed out the window and rewritten.

Hence the unoffical fun name, " The peoples republic of california", and with as many special interests as we have here, funds get diverted every which way from props. (aside from illegal immigration, probably one of the biggest reasons californas broke) The attack ads are henious, and constant.
That's just the propositions.... never mind the candidates. Im willing to bet poor voter turn out is for two reasons:

1.) A belief ( which i share), that Sh*ts screwed anyway, doesn't matter who gets into office.

2.) Majorly turned off by attack ads. The republicans really need to get away from the constant rhetoric. No solutions, no practical talk, just rhetoric. Democrates offer solutions at least, but then they do some crap thats a little too bleeding heart for my tastes.

Insert carlin clip here.

[August]

Originally Posted by Buddahaid

Use absentee ballots if you want to vote on your own time.

I have a problem with absentee ballots for everyone. It's just too easy to collect votes by bribe and trickery.

Let every voter make his own decisions in a private voting booth away from outside influences and at least be sober enough to walk on his own into a polling place and go through the mechanics of voting.