I’m a single woman, and I always vote. Not just in presidential elections, either. Even if the rhetoric of the presidential race doesn’t have much relevance for you, there are plenty of local issues that affect single women. In the most recent election, I voted on ballot measures dealing with aggressive panhandlers (makes a difference to single women who are accosted on a daily basis), sales taxes, and the minimum wage, to name just a few.
That’s not to say that the major national issues aren’t of interest to single women as well. I do have positions on the conflict in Iraq, abortion rights, and even Social Security (will it be around when I’m eligible?) But some of the local issues will have a more immediate impact on my life.
Exactly. One guy was telling me he didn’t vote because he didn’t care who the president was. I asked him “do you care if the bridge fares go up to support a new public trasit plan? Do you care if the cops have to take a pay cut? Do you care if the schools don’t have running water or are you willing to chip in a buck or two a year to repair them? The way you express what you DO care about is to VOTE on it!” Captain Amazing here are the qualifications for Absentee Ballot under Virginia law: RealNames | A more meaningful email address
Counting your commute time you easily qualify as having to work 11 of the 13 hours the polls are open, and you probably qualify as being “absent for business purposes,” because if your commute is an hour (I’m assuming here) you most likely work in a different city than your polling place. You just have to be out of the city to qualify as absentee.
Between the commute and work, I work for 10 1/2 hours, so I don’t qualify there. I suppose I do qualify on the “absent for business purposes”, but that seems to be designed for people who actually have to travel for business. I just live in the suburbs. It sort of seems like cheating to use it.
Also, from a practical standpoint, voting seems like a waste of time. My state has voted for Republican presidential candidates since 1968, my congressional district is pretty solidly Democratic, and I’m not informed or interested enough in local matters to be able to vote intelligently. While I could inform myself on those issues, of course, I don’t really see the point. In none of the elections I could have voted in since I was 18 would my vote have changed the outcome of the election. In fact, in none of those elections, would my vote have come close to changing the outcome. So, from a practical standpoint, my vote seems to be meaningless.
I should start an “Ask the Poll Inspector!” thread…in NYC we have to be there from 5:30 am to 9:30 pm or so, although to be fair we do get to go out for fifteen minutes for breakfast, and an hour each for lunch and dinner. We have to stagger the hours, of course, to catch the ‘rushes’ of people voting in our commuter neighborhood (I put that in quotes because the Super Tuesday primary ended up being less than suspenseful and about 250 people voted total all day). We’re volunteers in the sense that we’re not drafted and I skipped a few times for work but we do get paid ($200 at my level of training).
I registered to vote as soon as I could, and because my first vote was for Walter Mondale that tells you it wasn’t because of a wave of excitement for my candidate, just something you did when you turned 18. Before the Net it was tricker to find out all this stuff but my Mom is a Coordinator and got me an absentee ballot. But now that I think about it, almost nobody caters to single women politically. Taxes and employment are for everybody, national defense is largely seen as a testosterone issue, and pretty much the only thing they mention to us is abortion rights. And I’m pro-life so I think they always peg me backwards on that one Woman /= person with children, although I do take into account children’s issues since I know quite a few and don’t want them to go through what I did when I was a kid. Ah yes, the Bronx during the Son of Sam, blackout, and fiscal crisis days…
In fact, a lot of it is against us - (ok, well, me.) getting rid of the “marriage penalty” means that now I’m getting slammed. Any time a plan is made for families or “family values,” it means that I (the childless person) am going to be paying for the people who have children (last year, when cash came back to families with children, did I get any… I don’t think so. And where did the money come from? Exactly. Luckily, I’m community minded, but I wonder how many single women thought of that). There’s a ton of little things like that.
I am a young, childless single woman. I’ve voted in every presidential election (and most local) since I was 18.
I vote in presidential elections. I will vote in local elections now that I’m officially registered (long story) where I live.
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My vote has no meaning in presidential elections because of where I live, though. I can vote for whomever I want, and I exercise that right, but it’ll be ice hockey in hell before Kansas sends anyone but a Republican to any office. I miss my home state… at least it was swing most of the time.
Last year I voted for Nader. My friends in MO voted for Gore (against Bush) though they would’ve liked to vote for Nader. Something is wrong there.
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Then I respectfully submit that you aren’t listening closely enough, because that’s certainly not all that the candidates are talking about. A few simple clicks on the keyboard will show you where John Kerry stands on Agriculture, AIDS, Americans with Disabilities, Children, Civil Rights, College Affordability, Crime, Economy & Jobs, Education, Energy & Environment, Foreign Policy, GLBT, Health Care, Homeland Security, Immigration, Iraq - “A Strategy for Iraq”, National Service, Native Americans, Nurses, Protecting America’s Workers, Seniors, Small Businesses, Technology, Trade, Veterans and Women’s Issues, and that George W. Bush has an “agenda” for The Economy, Homeland Security, Compassion (though what the hell this means, I have no idea), Healthcare, Education, National Security, The Environment, Social Security & Energy.
Anyone who thinks that just because they don’t have children, that education and college affordability isn’t important to them hasn’t thought very far ahead (and I’m not directing this to anyone in particular, just in general). Education matters to all of us. I don’t have children (and may never have them), but I don’t want to live in a society that doesn’t give a fig about ensuring that our kids are sent out into the world equipped to run it (and that’s what they’ll be doing, literally, from the groundskeepers all the way up through the corporate executives and politicians). Crime, and the ability to prevent it and properly punish for it, matters to all of us. Agriculture matters to each and every one of us if we want to keep buying food in the grocery store and not growing it ourselves. Immigration, Civil Rights for heaven’s sake, the Environment and Trade all matter to each and every person who breathes. Just because you (again, the general “you”) won’t ever have to deal with bringing a fiancé into this country to live, just because the odds that you’ll get raped and pregnant and want a safe abortion are slim, just because you may have a cush job now, just because your tap water is safe to drink today, doesn’t mean we aren’t all affected by immigration, foreign policy, preserving our natural resources, unemployment and basic human rights.
People, we don’t live in a vacuum! Just because it might not ever happen to us doesn’t mean it isn’t important for us to care about.
Shayna, you don’t have to convince me. I do follow politics closely, and I’ve voted in every election since I turned 18. I was trying to point out that the candidates’ rhetoric doesn’t offer a lot for a young woman who isn’t particularly interested in politics. And, frankly, most Americans don’t get past the rhetoric to do their own research. The OP asked why single women don’t vote, not whether they should.
And I was trying to point out that that’s not at all true. There’s a lot out there that the candidates are talking about, if people would bother to listen. Why single women don’t seem to care as much as single men or married women and men, I have no clue. But it’s not because the politicians aren’t making issues that are (or should be) important to young women important in their campaigns – they are.
I know those are US statistics, but I’m guessing the situation is similar in Canada. I always vote, in everything from local to Federal elections (I’m in my early 20s). Not many of my friends vote, though. I think their main reason is inconvenience - it’s a pain in the butt to have to interrupt your day to go vote. I never understood that, because I’ve always believed that voting is important.
I’ll work harder on convincing them to get off their butts, though, and I’m going to use voguevixen’s tactic. We should get bumper stickers made!
“Vote. Otherwise I’ll be making your decisions for you.”
Woman /= person with children, although I do take into account children’s issues since I know quite a few and don’t want them to go through what I did when I was a kid. Ah yes, the Bronx during the Son of Sam, blackout, and fiscal crisis days…
(It’s probably a “wooosh” to non-voters though!)