# I live in the US, but I don't vote. Never have, never will. Ask Me Anything if you want. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 8, 2016, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-live-in-the-us-but-i-dont-vote-never-have-never-will-ask-me-anything-if-you-want/771059 "2016-11-08T13:49:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 16
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2016, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-live-in-the-us-but-i-dont-vote-never-have-never-will-ask-me-anything-if-you-want/771059/301 "2016-11-15T01:16:45Z")
…I’ve noticed that Idle Thoughts hasn’t been posting recently. I wanted to apologise for my tone in my post earlier in the thread. I was out of line. Even in the pit. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2016, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-live-in-the-us-but-i-dont-vote-never-have-never-will-ask-me-anything-if-you-want/771059/302 "2016-11-15T02:01:47Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > Try again, and use your brain, don’t just spew jargon. A vote withheld from Hillary is half a vote for Trump, but beyond that the math is unequivocal. Purely in terms of who wins, elections are a zero-sum game–they are won solely by having more votes than the opponent. A switch from candidate A to B changes the difference between A and B by 2. A switch from A to C or a non-vote changes the delta by 1. Denial of this fact is just a denial of third-grade math. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2016, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-live-in-the-us-but-i-dont-vote-never-have-never-will-ask-me-anything-if-you-want/771059/303 "2016-11-15T02:26:40Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > 1. The initial attitude of “that’s my opinion and nothing will change it” > > 2. His non-vote was not protest or lack of information (so he felt he couldn’t make a good decision). > > 3. He couldn’t see how “politics” does affect people’s lives, himself included. > > IOW, his choice comes from a position of willful lack of information. > > I can’t speak to Colin K decision as thoroughly, but it seems to me to be more protest coupled with personal experience. I think he’s wrong, but I see where he’s coming from. If I was discussing it with him, and he kept saying “nope, doesn’t matter” with every point, I’d be frustrated too. I don’t disagree that any single one of those things would be frustrating. Taking them all together, though… it almost suggests a curiously flat affect that makes me consider what others have also suggested: depression or something like it. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2016, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-live-in-the-us-but-i-dont-vote-never-have-never-will-ask-me-anything-if-you-want/771059/304 "2016-11-15T06:30:04Z")
I apologize to OP for losing my temper. Not voting for President is fine if one doesn’t live in a swing state, which Arizona really is not. And not voting is fine if you think the candidates are equally good (or equally bad). I lost my temper because the stakes in _this_ particular election were unusually huge: a good-hearted centrist, whatever her faults, vs a misogynist showman whose ignorance and sociopathy will make him a stooge for right-wingers, racists and other deplorables. Many of us are heart-broken, with grief causing irrational anger. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ On anothe rmatter: > [@Velocity](#): > > “Millions” plural? Cite please? Deaths in Iraq due to the earlier War are estimated at between 500,000 and over 1,000,000. Millions more became refugees, severely degrading their lives. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualties_in_the_war_in_Afghanistan_(2001%E2%80%932014)) asserts that 450,000 lives have been lost in 14 years of Afghanistan War “not including those who have died in Pakistan.” 400,000 or more have died in the Syrian Civil War; another 100,0000 in the Iraq war against Daesh, in each case again with millions of lives severely degraded. Should Bush and Cheney be charged with all these deaths? Perhaps not, but the events they set in motion certainly led to the rise of Daesh. And you don’t have to blame all the deaths on Bush-Cheney to find them responsible for more than a million and, by SDMB precedent, anything more than 1, even 1.001 millions takes the plural! ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2016, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-live-in-the-us-but-i-dont-vote-never-have-never-will-ask-me-anything-if-you-want/771059/305 "2016-11-17T00:45:28Z")
_“…while people took to the streets in Portland, OR) to denounce the president-elect, they apparently didn’t have the same fervor at the voting booth. News station KGW in Portland reports that at least 39 of the protesters did not return an election ballot. Another 35 of the demonstrators taken into custody weren’t registered to vote in Oregon, according to KGW.”_ > **[Report: Of the 112 arrested in Portland protests, at least 39 didn't actually...](https://www.sfgate.com/national/article/Portland-police-arrest-71-people-during-Donald-10616416.php?ipid=articlerecirc)** > > The Portland police arrested 112 people during this weekend's protests against president... ---
**Author:** ![Lee\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/aeb1de/32.png) [@Lee\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lee_Q)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2016, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-live-in-the-us-but-i-dont-vote-never-have-never-will-ask-me-anything-if-you-want/771059/306 "2016-11-17T01:05:13Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > [I friend request everyone on this board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=807373), okay? Don’t think that YOU’RE some special, little snowflake just because I sent you one, which, by the way…is not against the rules. And if you’re too stupid or thick enough to figure out how to hit the “deny request” button, then you have more problems than I cn help you with. How personally should I take it if I have no friend request from you? Maybe “everyone” was an exaggeration. I mean, I don’t post that much and probably most of what I do post goes unnoticed by most so I’m definitely not a high-visibility board member. But everyone doesn’t mean everyone unless it’s everyone, right? Mr. Idle Thoughts, you do not friend request everyone on this board, and I have the tear-stained pillowcase to prove it. ---
**Author:** ![OriginalGangster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ea5d25/32.png) [@OriginalGangster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OriginalGangster)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2016, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-live-in-the-us-but-i-dont-vote-never-have-never-will-ask-me-anything-if-you-want/771059/307 "2016-11-17T04:11:47Z")
Voting is nothing more than surveillance. If you’ve ever seen a “voter’s file”, they have all kinds of information on you, including things you thought were confidential. Quite a bit can be reverse engineered with a phone number & address. Obviously this varies by place-to-place, but it’s definitely over-reaching more often than not. You’re only given the illusion of choice. Anyone who says you “have to vote” or something about having the “right to vote” is obviously low average IQ. Notice how the political map has appeared very similar since 1992. Before that, there were years when basically the entire country went red or blue. Not anymore. The elites swing a few states however they want. They pulled quite the stunt this year. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2016, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-live-in-the-us-but-i-dont-vote-never-have-never-will-ask-me-anything-if-you-want/771059/308 "2016-11-17T05:08:58Z")
> [@OriginalGangster](#): > > Voting is nothing more than surveillance. If you’ve ever seen a “voter’s file”, they have all kinds of information on you, including things you thought were confidential. Quite a bit can be reverse engineered with a phone number & address. > > Obviously this varies by place-to-place, but it’s definitely over-reaching more often than not. > > You’re only given the illusion of choice. Anyone who says you “have to vote” or something about having the “right to vote” is obviously low average IQ. > > Notice how the political map has appeared very similar since 1992. Before that, there were years when basically the entire country went red or blue. Not anymore. The elites swing a few states however they want. They pulled quite the stunt this year. Always good to hear from the tinfoil-hat brigade. ---
**Author:** ![OriginalGangster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ea5d25/32.png) [@OriginalGangster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OriginalGangster)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2016, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-live-in-the-us-but-i-dont-vote-never-have-never-will-ask-me-anything-if-you-want/771059/309 "2016-11-17T05:25:00Z")
While it’s very easy to dismiss an opinion you don’t like as “tin foil”, here is some proof. [https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/02/voter-privacy-what-you-need-know-about-your-digital-trail-during-2016-election](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/02/voter-privacy-what-you-need-know-about-your-digital-trail-during-2016-election) ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2016, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-live-in-the-us-but-i-dont-vote-never-have-never-will-ask-me-anything-if-you-want/771059/310 "2016-11-17T05:36:57Z")
No, there are lots of opinions I disagree with that I don’t label tinfoil.That’s just for the paranoid ones. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2016, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-live-in-the-us-but-i-dont-vote-never-have-never-will-ask-me-anything-if-you-want/771059/311 "2016-11-19T19:06:35Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Always good to hear from the tinfoil-hat brigade. Tinfoil hats ain’t worth a damn in the wind. Just sayin’. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2016, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-live-in-the-us-but-i-dont-vote-never-have-never-will-ask-me-anything-if-you-want/771059/312 "2016-11-26T16:38:18Z")
I have a question. Have you ever had an intimate relationship with a barn yard animal? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2016, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-live-in-the-us-but-i-dont-vote-never-have-never-will-ask-me-anything-if-you-want/771059/313 "2016-11-26T17:44:16Z")
> [@Little\_Pig](#): > > I have a question. Have you ever had an intimate relationship with a barn yard animal? You offerin’? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-live-in-the-us-but-i-dont-vote-never-have-never-will-ask-me-anything-if-you-want/771059.md?page=15)