Maybe some posts you read clearly stated that the person refused to participate in the election at all, as opposed to meaning they refused to vote for either Trump or Clinton. But in general I don’t see a reason Republicans who can’t stomach Trump or Clinton would refuse to vote for a minor candidate for president or moreover would refuse to show up to vote for GOP down ticket candidates even if they leave the presidential line blank (where the OP poll question isn’t really clear). I’m sure a lot of nominally Republican voters won’t show up at all. A lot of Democratic ones won’t either, as in every election in a country where 60% turnout is ‘high’.
I try not to nitpick poll questions, but this one would probably be as practically informative if it just, ‘Hey you Republicans who won’t vote for Trump, will you vote for Clinton or not?’ For me, not. I can’t support Trump, but I think portraying him as some extinction level event is over the top (though over the top political rhetoric is a 200+ yr old US tradition) and there isn’t a good enough reason for me to vote for somebody like Hillary Clinton as I view her. There’s no chance my state, NJ, will be the tipping point (Nate Silver’s 0.9% chance is what you call a modeling artifact IMO). However that hasn’t prevented me voting for GOP pres candidates acceptable to me where NJ has been unimportant, as it’s been every time since at least 1976 (when Ford narrowly won it while losing the election, helped keep him in relative striking distance if he’d won a few other close states…otherwise the GOP won it when they didn’t need it, '80, '84, '88 and lost it every time since).
The thing is, I can’t vote for Trump and won’t vote for Hillary. And I’m not all that crazy about a full-on Libertarian, either. I still wouldn’t vote. If these two are the absolute two best candidates this country can put forth, then I suppose we deserve either one.
I’m Republican and happily voting for Hillary. Being in California, my vote won’t change the outcome, but voting for her is the right thing to do.
A vote is not an expression of support. It is an exercise of political power. It is a tiny amount of power, but it is significant–all those votes add up to determine the winner.
I probably shouldn’t have participated in this poll, but I did. I am a moderate conservative independent that generally favors my idealized version of a Republican over a Democrat. I’m also conservative in the sense that I prefer the status quo and stability; I am absolutely not a reactionary. Maybe the best way to put it would be that I favor very slow and measured progressivism. I used to like grid-lock, but that was before it led to things like government shut-downs and potentially defaulting on our Nation’s debt.
I voted in the Republican primary for Kasich although I’m not really a huge fan of his. I felt morally obligated to vote against Trump, and Cruz for that matter. Of all of the current Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates, I prefer Bill Weld.
I plan on voting for Gary Johnson. If somehow polls showed that Texas is close between Trump and Clinton, then I would change my vote to Clinton.
I strongly dislike Clinton but believe she would make a competent, moderate President. I would have gladly voted for Biden as I consider him a more moral, less corrupt version of Clinton.
It’s an exercise of attempting to vest my political power in someone. If a single vote if insignificant, then it doesn’t matter if I vote for someone I prefer rather than the person I see as the second-worst option. If a single vote is significant, then it’s important that I make sure my franchise is directed towards someone I agree with.
With all due respect, and I do respect you, Pleo, I don’t want Hillary to be President. Not wanting Trump to be President doesn’t change that.
Understood. I have respect for anyone who makes a considered vote. If you’re not unhappy with your vote, no matter what the final outcome, you’ve done your duty.
I’m voting for Clinton but unlikely to make a difference. I’m a centrist, foreign policy Republican. We’ve got a former SECSTATE who picked a running mate with Senate committee assignments including Foreign Relations and Armed Services. She’s not ideal, in some ways, but typically the Democratic base screens out the members of the Party that I find acceptable. For a change they didn’t.
I haven’t decided whether to vote Johnson or Hillary yet. I’m still mildly hopeful that Johnson can get sufficient recognition to affect the election, which between the failure of the standard Republican candidates this time around and (presumably) Trump’s failure, might help them to start moving away from the Christian aspect of the platform (which - I might note - is Constitutionally unsupportable, just as the anti-gun actions of the Democrats are).
But if it isn’t looking like Johnson can help shift the party, then I’ll go for Hillary, rather than risk Pence getting into the Whitehouse.
ETA: And note that if I do vote for Johnson, I’ll find someone on BalancedRebellion.com to counter my missing Hillary vote.