I wouldn’t take somebody in my vehicle to cancel out my vote. I won’t hinder them, but they can find someone that supports their candidate or do it by mail. If you’re just supposed to pick up voters because you volunteered, you need to take them.
I would and I have done so.
In 2004 I was a MoveON volunteer, trying my deadlevel best to deliver Ohio for Kerry lest Bush get a 2nd term in office. It mattered a lot to me or I would not have volunteered to be calling folks on the phone. (I seriously HATE cold calling in any form).
Our focus was on encouraging people to vote (for Kerry) and making sure they could GET TO THE POLLS. Calling list was from prior Dem listings.
I ended up on the phone with an elderly disabled person who wanted to vote Bush and had no way of getting to the polls. I put her in touch with a resource I found on the web from the Committee to Reelect the Prez or whatever it was called, to get a ride to the polling station, confirmed the polling address with her, and the date, and told her that while I was for Kerry the most important thing was that everyone’s voice be heard.
It’s like free press. Open it to everyone and the truth will win out. I did not figure it would help Kerry win in '04 but maybe, just maybe, it would play a role in nudging her to rethink the Dem party later on down the line. And if not, fuckit, it’s one vote and she wants to vote and she should be able to vote, you know?
No, not unless I was specifically asked. That would be very rude to deny.
But I would not help random people vote or encourage them to vote. I don’t value voting for the sake of voting. If you’re uninformed or apathetic enough not to vote by yourself, I don’t think you should be given a say in how the government is run. Simply getting more people to mark ballots does not help anything, especially not when these people are going to be voting for the other party. That’s why I’m against compulsory voting; forcing people to care is just completely wrongheaded.
Low voter turnout is not necessarily a bad thing for the country: the people who don’t really care and like a candidate because he has a nice nose or who would mark ballots randomly if forced to are selecting themselves out of the voter pool.
Now, I definitely understand why individual parties try to get more of their own people to vote, but I don’t see why anyone wants to get members of the opposition to vote. Would you donate money or time to the other cause? Then why would you give them a vote?
Valete,
Vox Imperatoris
Yes.
When I was nineteen I was a poor, car-less college student and it was my very first presidential election. My passionately Republican neighbor gave me a ride to vote, despite the fact that we both knew I was going to vote for Gore and her yard was peppered with Bush signs. We may not have seen eye to eye, but she was going to make sure I got the chance for my voice to be heard even so, and I respect her to this day for that.
I’d be honored for the opportunity to help someone in the same way, regardless of his or her political affiliation.
Good lord, I am shocked that anyone would answer ‘no’ to this one. In my hierarchy of certainties, ‘democracy is a good thing’ is way above ‘my own political positions are right’.
pdts
Yeah, me too. Also shocked. Normally it’s considered a horrible thing to deny a citizen a fair vote. (Not to invoke Godwin here, but isn’t that what they used to do to black people in some areas? And it was a really bad thing to do?)
When I was registering voters for cash, Lo these many years ago, we were told that, by law, we could not refuse to register anyone who asked us, however we could waffle and hope they’d go away, and since we would only be paid for the people we registered to the party that hired us; well, you get the picture. we were also told that colleges in Sept were great places to find longs lines of people recently relocated. This was before online registration of course. I don’t know how true any of this is today.
I would/have helped; participating in the electoral process is a civic duty, whether it’s casting my own vote, or enabling another citizen to cast there’s. Of course we might chat a bit on the way. 
I have honestly had people tell me they didn’t want to register because then they’d start getting hit for jury duty! Hello, civic duty, the sequel :smack:
Absolutely would help them out. Not my business who they’re voting for. Helping someone who needs help, that’s all…
Great. Just letting you know that I will be voting.
And thanks in advance for your absolute respect.
Yes, I would. I might not enjoy it, but it’d be the right thing to do.
Yes, I would. You never know, your kindness and generosity may make them change their vote at the last moment. And really, you don’t know for a fact who they will actually cast their vote for, do you?I’m sure there are lots of people who wear the buttons, but vote for the opposition when they are alone with their ballot. I persoanlly may be making up my mind at that final moment.
I’m shocked people would take in a bunch of people that oppose your views on what is right. The issues you support must not be important enough to not take someone to vote against them. Maybe you can take a carload that will vote against your cause, that makes little sense. Like I said there’s the mail or someone that supports their candidate. Elections are about getting people that will do what you think is right into office, not the opposite.
If asked I would, but probably only for a neighbor or friend or something. If some dude by the side of the road wearing Bush '08 signs had his thumb out, I’d have no qualms about leaving him. Actually, I’d probably pick him up just to see how he thinks Bush’ll get in for a 3rd term.
Yes. Because no one should be (indirectly) deprived of the right to vote (by me) based on the fact that I disagree with them.
If I were inclined to give someone a hand, I would do so without thought of his/her politics. In fact, I likely wouldn’t even know what his/her politic were - unless they were insistently vocal.
Yes.
I’d probably beat myself up over it afterward (should I really have done that?, etc.), but as I see it, it is their right as a citizen to vote for the candidate of their choice. Refusing to help them vote seems childish, cowardly, and just plain mean-spirited to me.
Yes, I’d help because the only thing I’m sure about in any social science is that democracies are better than tyrannies. http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/
Yep, I sure would.
For me, enabling the right to vote is way more important when which suit actually wins this year. It goes right along with my strong support of your (general you) right to vote for anyone you want to, even if that person has zero chance of actually winning.
Well, of course not, but I don’t hate many people. I don’t hate Senator McCain, for instance; he just makes me sad. Nor do I hate President Bush, though he has progressed from making me point & laugh to making me shudder in horror.
I wouldn’t hesitate to do so. I’m much more dedicated to the idea of a participatory democracy then any particular candidate. One side is going to win - I’d like the maximum number of people to feel like they’re part of the decision making process.
Of course, if the candidate were Nehemiah Scudder, I wouldn’t help. But hopefully I’d be working on a plan to [del]murder[/del] [del]assassinate[/del] exile him to the Crab Nebula.