Do you vote?

I don't wanna be a party spoiler, but the question is really irrelevant: the way our votes are counted is dependent on who's in power. Since the year 2000, the planet is governed by anti-democrats, who have no moral or too much of a technical problem rigging elections all over the globe.

Europe, e.g., had some weird election results the last few years, and state security agencies (courted by the CIA epicentre), are surely involved. Recently prime minister of Spain Aznar got an election majority in Madrid. Inexplicable. There's hardly anyone in Spain who supports him after his stance on Iraq.

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Butrflynet wrote:

Voting is compulsory in Oz? How does that work? How do they audit and enforce it?

Wonder if that would be a good idea for the US...

When you go to get your ballot paper they mark you on the roll as having voted. If you're not marked off then several weeks after the election you will recieve a letter asking for an explanation. If they don't like the explanation, the next letter will contain a fine of about $120. Only knew one person who ever got one of those letters, after she DID vote, she filled in the form and never heard about it again. There's always debate about the issue, but our informal vote rate is normally less than 2 percent, so it seems most people just vote and there's no problem.

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How wonderfully oppressive.

No one complains about it? I am sure that Jesse Jackson would be at the front of the line complaining about how it is a person's right NOT to vote and that the US govt was just trying to keep the lesser man down by fining them when they were too lazy/stoned/drunk/or otherwise disposed of to go and vote.

Hell, it's possible to have a local election where only 8% of the voters DO vote...

Edited to make it appear as though English was my native language...

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In countries with compulsory voting, you have the liberty to cast an unvalid vote once you're in the booth. Your vote will then be accounted as a vote for the majority.

Voting is the basis of a democracy. You don't have a democracy if every one is allowed to avoid any part in it.

Edited 35 times to write decent Engish.

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Yes, yes, and yes. But, as a one-time Californian, I wish more people didn't. (And to think I wanted to move back there some time...)

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this is what we (well not me, but other canajuns) came up with in regard to voting when there's no one you like on the ballot

Quote:

CANADA ELECTIONS ACT

Hon. Charles Caccia (Davenport, Lib.) moved for leave to introduce Bill C-319, an act to amend the Canada Elections Act (declined vote ballots).

He said: Mr. Speaker, this bill aims at amending the Canada Elections Act. It would permit the introduction of a declined vote ballot. It would allow electors to cast a vote indicating dissatisfaction with the parties and the candidates listed on the ballot and yet register a valid vote rather than casting a spoiled vote. The affected elector would thus be able to indicate his or her wish to decline to vote for any candidate standing for election without having to spoil the ballot, as is the case now.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

http://www.parl.gc.ca/37/1/parlbus/chambus/house/debates/038_2001-03-28/han038_1525-e.htm

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McGentrix wrote:

Edited to make it appear as though English was my native language...

"as though English were my native language..." That's the subjunctive, Boss--nice effort, however.

(Edited to note that this was written as a wry little jab, and not an attempt at character assassination.)

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Patiodog -- is that a vote that you like to "vote early and often"?

Cool idea, ehBeth. Mr.P says he has occasionally written in "None of the Above" but I think he's just kidding me.

Setanta -- If you're gonna pick on him like that, ya missed "unvalid." Very Happy

Wolf, I truly appreciate your efforts and am sure I'd be hopeless in whatever is your native language. I was just tweakin' the (real) Boss a little. Wink

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Butrflynet wrote:

Voting is compulsory in Oz? How does that work? How do they audit and enforce it?

Wonder if that would be a good idea for the US...

There's a downside to compulsory voting though... the populists can win more easily as uninformed voters who don't really care and wouldn;t have voted end up voting. Maybe not the case in Oz but it's the case in some nations I have lived in.

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Nugent for Governor (MI).

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I always vote and we have an election coming up on the first Tuesday in November. Turnout will be very, very low since there are no national or statewide issues.
We'll be selecting some new mwmbers of the Board of Supervisors (called, perhaps, councilors in other places). I've known many of the players all of my adult life. They have differing opinions about urban sprawl vs preserving the environment
vs creating jobs and so on and on.
The voter turnout will probably be around 30% of the registered voters. And the registered voters are only 60% of the voter eligible population.
It strikes me as scary as to how a few number of voters can take advantage of the apathetic majority.
We now have school board elections, too. I fought hard against that idea but I lost. -rjb-

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Yes, but, being a liberal in Texas, I feel it is wasted most of the time.

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One of the best times of my life started when we discovered that the local elections of San Angelo, Texas were decided by a total vote of less than 2000 out of a population of 75,000. (1968) I was working with the local chicano population, organizing homework sessions for high school kids and holding block meetings to talk about the lack of sewers in chicano neighborhoods. (Can you imagine? In America, in 1968, now sewers on past Ave K.) Anyway......We were radicals then, and we went out and canvassed and registered about 7000 chicano voters. Holy cow ! Did we get the city's attention!
We only won one seat on the city council, but it was the first held by a Mexican-American in the town's history. Three years later.... sewers. That's revolution.

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So revolution in a democracy is dependent on an apathetic majority. We're almost there!

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Joe Nation wrote:

One of the best times of my life started when ....

Great story and it even has a happy ending! Thanks.

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I've voted every election since I was elegible, except for a couple of small local ones. Dunno, just have to to keep talking with myself.

My voting is often an indicator of who won't win, though, so I am a pretty dangerous voter...

edited in effort to spell 'every' right.

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I suppose the next question is how many people vote using my method. By placing the candidate I dislike the most last, and then up to the candidate I dislike the least?!?

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I have voted in every election, national, state, and local, since I was old enough. I grew up in a family which never thought twice about voting -- it's just something that normal people do as a matter of course. Our dinner table talk was most often political, even when we were rather young kids. My parents seemed to feel it was important for us to get to know the language of politics and to learn how we are affected. If only more parents had the same idea. Smile

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ossobuco wrote:

My voting is often an indicator of who won't win, though, so I am a pretty dangerous voter...

Me too, me too!

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Quote:

I suppose the next question is how many people vote using my method. By placing the candidate I dislike the most last, and then up to the candidate I dislike the least?!?

As a matter of course. People I like don't go into politics -- neither of 'em.

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