If you don’t want to vote, PLEASE DON’T. Its only right that things should be decided by those like myself who CARE about the results.
Me? I vote because I’d far rather settle things with the ballot box than the cartridge box.
Kalashnikov, you do have a point. I do try to make sure I’m an informed voter, to the point where I’ve called two candidates running for town council at home and asked why I should vote for them. Both of them gave me quite reasonable answers, IIRC, and, based on those answers, I decided to vote for one over the other.
Back in Hawaii, I would see candidates on the street corner campaigning and ask them the same question (at least 7 years ago the custom was that their supporters would stand on street corners waving signs, and the candidate would be wearing a lei). Responses were varied, and at least one woman should be glad I wasn’t a constituent, but the closes thing I got to a negative response was the woman I just mentioned who, when she found out I wasn’t a constituent, gave me what sounded like a canned campaign speech.
CJ
Watch out! I have a vote and I’m not afraid to use it!
Here’s my question for **Surreal ** and other non-voters. Do you do any volunteer work? Why bother? After all, you might teach one kid to read, but that won’t make any difference in overall literacy rates. Do you recycle? Given the vast amount of trash we generate, recycling probalby doesn’t make that much of a difference. Ever written an elected official? Become involved with a civic cause? Why should you? Everyone knows one person can’t make a difference.
After all, why should little old unimportant me try to influence things for the better? Why not leave all that to the wealthy career politicians who surely know what’s best for me?
Frankly, I don’t like the way some people here are trying to present the non-voters as egotists; suffrage means you have the right to vote, not the duty, and if someone thinks he better not take use of that right it’s OK, and you can’t blame him for this nor can you call him irresponsible.
burundi’s comparisons, IMHO, don’t work; I am convinced recycling is worth it, and I think teaching one kid reading is a good thing - even if it doesn’t change the national illiteracy statistics too much, you have changed one person’s life for better. But what has this got to do with elections? Whether one person cast their ballot or not will hardly change the result - if candidate A is elected, it doesn’t matter afterwards by how many votes, he’s simply elected, period.
I accept it if some people say there are other reasons for voting than having influence on the immediate result; but a non-voter obviously doesn’t value those reasons high enough to get him to the polls. I just can’t see why this should be considered immoral.
Exercise.
Since Surreal believes voting is such a waste of time, I’m curious to know what he thinks would be a better system.
A better system would be one where NOBODY votes, I just rule as a despot with absolute authority. Duh!
But since the odds of that ever happening are about as likely as it is that any of YOUR individual votes will make a difference. Therefore, I’ll have to settle for the only RATIONAL decision, which is to do nothing.
As Jello Biafra said - there should be a none of the above box at the end of your voting card 
Seriously though - I vote because I have to or I get a fine but even if it wasn’t compulsory I would still vote because I want my voice to be heard.
Hey Surreal, can you give me $1?
I mean, since you think one vote doesn’t mean anything, and you only get one of those, how about sending me some cash? You have way more money than votes, even if you’re only earning a paltry 500 clams a year, and by the end of the year having one dollar more or less won’t prevent you from buying anything, so why not just pass that greenback on my way?
Thanks!
BTW, the reason I vote is because I can. I don’t want to live in a place where people don’t vote – either from apathy or it not being allowed.
I absolutely agree. Until there is a “None of the Above” choice (and if NOTA wins, you throw out the candidates and get new ones) then there isn’t any real point to voting. In the current political climate, a voting booth is like walking into a restaurant where the only two items on the menu are dog poop and cat poop. And all the tables in the restaurant are filled with people who clearly don’t like either one, but are telling you that you have to order and eat one of them before you can complain.
I see no difference whatsoever in the candidates. There may be differences in what they say to get elected, but once they’re there, it’s just the same old crap. To me, casting a vote in an election in which you don’t actually support either of the candidates is basically saying, “Although this system is giving me no choices I like and nothing to do about that fact, I will go ahead and validate it.”
I will say this for voting, though. One thing it does seem to accomplish is that it allows people to puff themselves up with pride AND apparently gives them unique insight into the human brain and heart that allows them to immediately know others’ motivations for theit actions or lack of actions.
[continued Aussie hijack]
I emailed TLD to join the Teeming Handful (and he promptly stuck my profile up - thanks mate!). Unforunately, I’m unable to register to join the boards. I fill that stupid registration form out, but clicking the submit button does nothing for me. Tried it on a couple computers too. 
Anyone other Handful’er have this problem?
[/continued Aussie hijack]
Guess I better something about OP too.
Oh yeah, I vote (a) because it’s compulsory; and (b) because I believe it’s the right thing to do. I want to contribute - in however small a way - to the process that decides who represents us in Parliament. Simple as that.
And one vote can make a difference. There’s better examples than these, but I can’t dig 'em up at the moment.
(tigergirl, it’s compulsory to vote in local elections in Victoria? Not the case here. Unless I’m missing something of course.
Right now, the President of the United States is in favor of secret tribunals, and his Attorney General is trying to burn the Bill of Rights one square inch at a time.
But, hey–all the others are just the same.
Right? :rolleyes:
Sometimes there are no good choices, but some choices are worse than others. Leaving the total control of government in the hands of fixers, zealots & special intrest groups is always a bad choice.
Remember–most elections are won or lost by very small margins. The US 2000 presidential elections are the best example I can think of. A larger-than-usual voter turnout effectively drowns the influence of fixers, zealots & special intrest groups in sheer numbers–such groups tend to be very loud, but quite small.
Local elections are even easier to effect, due to their small scale.
My father is running for City Council as an Independent. Government reform & school reform are his platforms. We are having a record turnout, so this may be the day that entrenched intrests get the boot.
Legomancer–your remarks are the council of despair. Such answers are automatically incorrect.
IMO, this is not about the system here. It’s about whether one single individual has any advantage from voting or not.
Have you tried going to the EZboard registration page? Once there, choose a “global” (ie a name no-one else on the EZboards has, and one that’ll let you create your own board some day) or a local one just for G’Dope.
You’re right – so far you’re not registering with Dopers Downunder. Which is a pity, because we’d love to have you join in.
Perhaps my one vote isn’t going to make a difference, but I believe that someday, somehow, someone is going to split voter participation rates down to a level where the fact that I voted (if not my actual vote) is going to actually make a difference in how public servants think about me, my community, my neighborhood, my demographic group, etc. I would never want a candidate or official to write me or one of my “groups” or causes off (however you define it) because too few of us vote. Showing up and voting is my way of ensuring that I will be noticed by people who are obsessed with who votes.
Frankly, I also get a big kick out of standing in line and looking at everyone else and knowing that we’re all going to the trouble for what must be compelling (if not entirely knowable) reasons.
I wish this was in the Pit so I could say what I really feel. However, being in a more courteous forum, I will simply say that Surreal is a silly duffer.
As always, when someone comes here to pose a question merely as an excuse to tell everyone else how wrong their answers are, this is a dusty and tedious argument.
But I marvel at how the response and support he has garnered indicates that the the fashion for flags and the land of the free has passed. People were willing to give food or blankets or blood a few months ago. Now leaving the house to vote is too much trouble. Ah, fashion…
SEVEN MONTHS AGO TODAY we were reeling from the effects of tyranny and terrorism. Democracy, where each person has a vote, is the answer to both of these evils.
Of course one vote makes a difference. One purchase of a Britney Spears album makes a difference. That dopey schoolgirl who muses and ponders and finally puts down the Mariah Carey to buy a Britney is multiplied and multiplied, and serves as the basic material out of which is built career success, fame and endless wealth.
There are thousands of us and our choices matter, and if the choice you make that has the most significance in the wider world is the brand of beer you drink, you are walking away from being the best human you can. Dangerosa described very vividly above how our single vote connects us to the world.
And both Kayeby and Cranky expressed the joy of the moment too. I am proud to stand in line and make my voice heard. It is a responsibility of every free citizen, and to rabbit on and on about how the smart thing is to have a beer instead, could be seen as jejeune and sophomoric.
And how are things in sophomoric? Is the little brook still babbling there?
Ah, forget it, you duffer.
Redboss
Okay, here in BC we’re having a mail-in referendum regarding Indian Treaty Rights.
The Attorney General says the vote will be binding if people vote yes to all 8 questions, and it won’t be if people vote no.
The questions are also very muddled in their wording. Some mean the same thing if you answer yes or no. (It’s worse than the last referendum in Quebec, which I did get the chance to vote in.)
Now many people in BC are opposed to this referendum, because they fear it will just create chaos and uprising from Aboriginal Bands. They’re refusing to participate, burning ballots, whatever.
Because the ballots were mailed out, and many people have moved since the elector’s list was updated, I’ve managed to get my hands on 8 ballots. They were mailed to people who moved out of my building, and the current tenants just left them in the lobby, so I picked them up.
Suggestions?
In my (albeit short) life, I’ve voted only one time for the winning candidate. Doesn’t matter. In French, the word for “vote” is “voix” - voice. Your vote is your voice, officially recorded and available for equal consideration with everyone else in your district.
I received 1003 votes when I ran in the last election, for 2,5% of the vote. Was I unhappy? Not at all. 1002 people agreed with me that I would have been the better member of parliament. I ran an honest campaign based on my ethical views and positions, not image or inertia. I firmly believe that every one of the 1003 people who voted for me, did so out of an ethical conviction of which I approve (to which I could add the votes garnered by the other leftie parties of which I also approve). No matter who won or who got more votes, that’s proof positive that there are 1003 people who are paying attention and who care strongly enough about their beliefs to entrust me with the job of member of parliament.
That’s a large number. That’s one-twentieth of the number of people who went to Quebec City - just in my riding. And that gives me hope.
1003 people is enough to change the world. And Svend Robinson got 17 018 votes.
Finally, again as the French say, “qui ne dit mot consent” - who says nothing, consents. I will not consent to be governed by persons or ideologies of whom I disapprove. If there truly were nobody on the ballot of whom I approved, I would spoil the ballot rather than be deadened into just giving up.