I would hazard a guess that the average Doper is somewhat more fanatical about doing one’s civic duty than the average voter as a whole. It seems, based off of the posts in this forum, that Dopers are quite zealous about voting, which in itself is a pretty healthy attitude. It looks like even in this US election voter turnout still might not break 65%.
I’ve voted in almost every major election that I’ve been eligible to vote in since 2008 (‘major’ meaning the November midterm/presidential ones; I can’t be bothered to make it out there to vote in April or June for some small school-board thing.)
Oh, and not to limit this to Americans of course. In fact I am especially curious about our non-American Dopers. What is the attitude about voting in your country and electorate, if you have elections? Is voter zeal praised; is voter apathy discouraged, or do people not think or care much either way?
Poll coming…
I’ve voted in every single election that I’ve been eligible to vote in, except for one, since I turned 18 over 30 years ago.
That one time, I had to have surgery just before the election, and it was too late to vote absentee. Since then, I have become a permanent absentee voter so that I never miss another election.
I consider it a privilege to vote, and actually care more about my local issues and representatives than the big national ones.
I do, however, sometimes leave an item on the ballot blank if I don’t care for any of the options presented. I think “none of the above”, if reached after consideration, is also a valid choice.
I’ve voted in every presidential election since I was eligible, but skipped the first two mid-term elections (1990, 1994). The Republican sweep in 1994, fixed my resolve to never let another national election go by without voting.
However I do admit to being a bit flaking about local elections, and haven’t voted in any that weren’t tied to a national one.
I’m also a bit flaky about voting in the primaries, having only voted for Clinton in 2008 and 2016.
I vote almost every time - I may have missed a one-issue ballot initiative or levy election here and there, but otherwise have voted at every opportunity since 1984.
I didn’t vote municipally until I bought a house (over 20 years ago) but haven’t missed one since.
I probably missed the first provincial and federal elections I was qualified to vote in, due to ignorance. But I have voted in, and will continue to vote in, every election from now on.
I only missed one election as well. I was 19 and had a really long day of work/college combined. The polling location was one bus stop before home, and I was so tired that autopilot took over. I’m sitting there eating dinner 5 minutes after the polls closed when I finally remembered.
Absentee ballot mailed early ever since.
My biggest frustration with US people who don’t vote: they usually cite only the Presidential election as a reason not to vote. For crying out loud, people, there are senators, governors, mayors, city councils, sheriffs, judges, propositions, sales tax issues, water commissioners… just because you don’t like federal Presidential candidates doesn’t mean that life-changing issues aren’t lurking down-ballot. In my area, some of these crucial down-ballot issues also appear on primary ballots, like one this year for a 0.3% sales tax increase to fund law enforcement and fire departments.
I have voted in every election for which I have eligible except I will not vote in the rare circumstance that I move to a new city and they are in the middle of an election. I feel like I don’t know the issues enough to make an informed choice. This has happened to me twice.
I vote, but only in elections where I understand who the candidates are and what they believe.
Which is a problem when there are primaries for local elections, because I cannot find info about who the candidates are, what their track record is, etc. There was a primary for sheriff last year I think that I decided not to vote in because I didn’t understand what the candidates stood for and couldn’t find any info online.
However I always vote when I can research the candidates, their views, and figure out which one aligns with my own values.
I voted “over 95% of the time”, which I believe best catches the spirit of the question.
But it depends on how you count. I stopped voting in South African elections when I moved to the United States. Technically I’d be eligible to do so, although I believe it is tedious and would involve travel to the consulate in Los Angeles.
So I have always voted in the elections of my country of residence if I’ve been eligible to do so at the time. But that means skipping all South African elections since I left and it also means a few skipped American elections where I was a resident but not yet a citizen.
I registered to vote on my 18th birthday, and have voted in every election since-- sadly, the first one was not until I was 19. I also have been a poll worked more years than not. I voted absentee when I was away in college, and when I was in military training. Oddly, many of the soldiers in my class were surprised to see me get my ballot in the mail, because they didn’t know you could do that. They all missed voting while in training, because they were uninformed. I actually went to talk to the pastor and suggested that someone needed to let young soldiers know they could do this-- all they had to do was write the county clerk on their county of residence to start the process. (Now you probably just log on to a computer and request one.)
My grandmother, who passed away a few months ago, will miss voting for the first woman president. She voted for her in the primary, though, twice.
My grandmother was born three years before the passage of the 19th amendment, and became a US citizen the year it passed (back then, children under a certain age automatically became citizens when their parents did). She registered to vote at age 21, which was the age then, and never missed an election. She lived to be nearly 99. Neither of my parents missed an election either, and they spent lots of time abroad doing research. I don’t think my brother has missed one, and my aunt and uncle have not. Voting is really big in my family.
I spent most of the '80s and '90s either outside the country or on remote drilling sites, and did not bother much with absentee ballots, so shame on me. I’ve been better the past couple decades, though. So, “60-95%”, more or less.
Right around 95%. I’ve missed several first-or-third-year-of-presidency elections, if I’d moved to a place recently and hadn’t learned anything about local issues or candidates (and/or I was living in Mexico, as happened a couple of times*).
*I wasn’t as diligent as Rivkah’s family in overcoming my abroad-ness, but I did vote absentee once due to this (the 1998 midterms).
I missed a few (1 presidential and 2-3 midterms) right back at the start, when I was young. And I’ll skip a primary if (as is usually the case) it’s uncontested by the time it gets to my state. But other than that, I always vote.
I’ll admit that I usually leave most of the judgeships blank, but I do make a point to research every ballot issue.
I have voted in every election, including at least one I can think of where there was only one item on the ballot (a special election called to raise property taxes for the local school district when a similar measure lost in the previous November election by one vote; I’m pretty sure they paid for the election by, er, having the property tax increase slightly higher the second time. Yes, it passed.)
“Don’t you live in California? What about the 2003 governor’s recall?” There were (at least) four items on that ballot; whether or not to recall Gray Davis, who should replace him if he was recalled, and two propositions.
If there was an even more emphatic and higher category at the top, I’d be that. We had a completely-stupid-but-legally-required primary in an off year city council race last year that really pushed the bounds of low participation rate - it was in the middle of September and the only question on the ballot was “which four of these five candidates gets to be in the real election” - and I even voted in that.
To be fair, my polling place is almost literally in my back yard, so it would be pretty lazy to not make the 90 second walk.