Did you vote yesterday?

Tags: Voting, 2009 Elections, Local Elections
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If not, shame on you. In answer to those who say my vote doesn't count....in my local election, there was a winner by one vote - yep I reviewed the results today. I did vote and if one or two of you bozos was out there voting like you should have - my choice may have won!

On the positive side, my other under dog did win! How was your voting results?

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Type: Question • Score: 12 • Views: 365 • Replies: 27

@Linkat,

I disagree with the premise of this thread - there is no reason that more people voting for the sake of voting is a good thing. If you aren't informed about the issues, I would prefer you not vote.

It is better to not vote, than to vote for the wrong side. The worst thing is someone who votes based on the 30s sound bites they here on TV.

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@Linkat,

All the people I voted for won!

Didn't do so well on issues though. I voted no no no yes -- results were yes yes yes yes. So only a 25% success rate there (in terms of what I wanted vs. what happened).

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@Linkat,

I voted for mayor and three councilmen. I was three for four. In a city of around 100k people, you can be a city councilman in an off year election with 4400 votes.

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@Linkat,

Linkat wrote:

If not, shame on you.

There was no election yesterday, so I didn't vote. Am I still obligated to feel shame?

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@joefromchicago,

This is correct, Linkat. There were no offices up for election where joefromchicago and I live.

However, in my house it was still a special day. My wife is Chinese and she always refers to the first Tuesday in November as "erection day".

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@ebrown p,

My agrument to that is people should be informed - why wouldn't you be it effects so many aspects of your life? Especially the local elections - school committee if you have children (and even if you don't it will indirectly impact you); ward reps - help with things like potential businesses you may or may not want in your area; mayor - all city services and your taxes - this that directly impact your day to day life.

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@ebrown p,

The NY Times blog "The Ethicist" agrees with you saying voting for the sake of voting is not valuable.

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@joefromchicago,

Well, I'll let you off this time, however, you could easily sneak in on another local election - just mention a street name and while the 100 year clerk is taking 20 minutes to find the street, you simply read the names and street number upside down that are not checked and say 25 Fred Smith. And you vote for some other local election.

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@wandeljw,

bonus for you.

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i went to vote, but they said i couldn't

and why, because i'm canadian

so much for land of the free

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@djjd62,

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@engineer,

Quote:

We should not. It is a fine thing to rally support for a person or a policy you esteem. It is reasonable to urge your neighbors to be informed about issues that affect your community. But it is irresponsible to encourage the unaware to put their ignorance into action so aimlessly. “Just vote” doesn’t express civic virtue; it’s sentimentality. You might as well urge the unpracticed to use power tools or Rollerblade. Simultaneously. At least they’d injure only themselves.

We are indeed an ignorant people. A 2008 survey found that only 18 percent of Americans could name all three of the following: the U.S. secretary of state, the British prime minister and the party that controls the U.S. House of Representatives. A 2009 study revealed that only about half of adults know how long it takes the earth to orbit the sun. Healthcare, the big issue of the day? Thirty-nine percent of Americans want government to “stay out of Medicare.” And then there’s bison awareness. The Wildlife Conservation Society asked 2,000 Americans more than 50 questions about bison. Apparently we are stunningly uneducated about bison affairs. Even more disturbing is that 2,000 Americans were willing to answer 50 questions about bison: talk about too much free time.

That is very well said.

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@djjd62,

Please refer to my instructions above

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@ebrown p,

A monarchist at heart, no doubt. Having no trust in the electorates cumultive intelligence has always been a problem with both the extreme left and right.

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In Houston, we were voting for mayor as well as many other city officials. We also had 11 exceedingly wordy propositions for state constitutional amendments on the ballot. My choices for mayor and controller made the runoffs. I was 10 for 11 on the propositions.

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@farmerman,

Saying that we shouldn't pressure people to vote if they don't care enough to be informed is a far cry from either Monarchist or extremist. Every adult citizen should have the right to vote. Every adult citizen should have the right not to vote.

As far as "cumulative intelligence" goes, thousands of people in Maine lost the right to marry last night-- thanks to people who voted because they were told by their church that they were protecting their kids from being recruited by the "homosexual lobby".

How is that "cumulative intelligence"?

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@ebrown p,

some times we win some and sometimes we lose. Im quite familiar with the politics of MAine. It has a quite vocal minority of Deep Woods Baptists who are far from the transplant "coasters". I get shit on all the time by the same douche bag"beloved" when I lecture on stratigraphy of the De Geer moraines and the work of CT Jackson

I am saddened that the referndum was not passed but it was the peoples will so I have no course to doubt it. We are all not so fortunate to be as enlightened as you and I, (and I sometimes wonder about you)

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There was an election somewhere yesterday? Where? Not in this state.

(Btw, I do agree with ebrownp on this thing about voting from abysmal ignorance. Don't.)

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@farmerman,

You are missing my point. I believe in our system of making these decisions and I would militantly defend the right of each of the constituencies to vote. Listen carefully-- everyone wants to vote, should be allowed to vote.

This is different from the point I am making which is that we shouldn't be pressuring people to vote for the sake of voting. There is no benefit to you or I (or from my perspective to society) for any effort to encourage more "Deep Woods Baptists" to vote.

It is critically important to our system of democracy that everyone has the right and ability to vote. It is better for society if uninformed people, or people with shallow sound bit views not vote. These two statements are not contradictory.

As engineers article pointed out-- MTV's "Rock the Vote" effort is the most ridiculous example of the "vote just to vote" idiocy.

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Did you vote yesterday?

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