America making it harder to vote? WTH?

had a completely ordinary election in Ontario yesterday, easy to vote, and results that appear to be solid 1 1/2 hours after the polls closed, all managed with paper, pencils and some cardboard boxes

i find it's the douchebags running for office that make it harder to vote each time

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I have found no difficulty in voting in NY.
I just show my driver's license, to identify myself.

David

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@boomerang,

Make voting compulsory.
Then politicians have to cater for all the population, not
just the ones funding their election campaign.

3 Replies

@Bootlace,

Thanks for that, Bootlace. It's the first good reason I've ever heard for a mandatory voting law. I'm still against it, but that is a thoughtful reason.

1 Reply

@Bootlace,

Bootlace wrote:

Make voting compulsory.
Then politicians have to cater for all the population, not
just the ones funding their election campaign.

What is the JURISDICTIONAL PREDICATE for that????
Please show us, Bootlace, where government got the authority
to require that???????????

I deny that any government has any authority to require that.

David

2 Replies

@roger,

roger wrote:

Thanks for that, Bootlace. It's the first good reason I've ever heard for a mandatory voting law. I'm still against it, but that is a thoughtful reason.

Thank you roger for giving it thought even though you are against it.
With compulsory voting, at least you compelled to have a say on who you
want to run the country even if your team does not win. It keeps politicians
on their toes and stops them taking the population for granted. Everyone
should have a say on the running of their country instead of leaving it up
to others. Stand up, be counted.
Just my thoughts on the matter.

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@OmSigDAVID,

OmSigDAVID wrote:

Bootlace wrote:
Make voting compulsory.
Then politicians have to cater for all the population, not
just the ones funding their election campaign.
What is the JURISDICTIONAL PREDICATE for that????
Please show us, Bootlace, where government got the authority
to require that???????????

I deny that any government has any authority to require that.

David

I am not a lawyer David, but I thought a government was capable of passing
those types of laws. I see you are vehemently opposed to compulsory voting.
Apart from "HAVING" to cast your vote, is there any other reason why you are
against it ?

1 Reply

@Bootlace,

Bootlace wrote:

Make voting compulsory.
Then politicians have to cater for all the population, not
just the ones funding their election campaign.

OmSigDAVID wrote:

What is the JURISDICTIONAL PREDICATE for that????
Please show us, Bootlace, where government got the authority
to require that???????????

I deny that any government has any authority to require that.

David

Bootlace wrote:

I am not a lawyer David, but I thought a government
was capable of passing those types of laws.

In theory, maybe it might be possible
for that authority to be given to a government.
I am not aware that that has happened in America
and as per the 9th and 10th Amendments to the US Constitution,
all power that has not been granted is WITHHELD from it.

We need to remember that the relationship between the citizens
and the government that thay have created is ADVERSARIAL.

Government jurisdiction and personal freedom are INVERSELY PROPORTIONAL.
That means that the more there is of one,
the less there is of the other.

Bootlace wrote:

I see you are vehemently opposed to compulsory voting.
Apart from "HAVING" to cast your vote, is there any other reason why you are against it ?

Another reason is that people who are ignorant of the relevant facts
and people who apathetically don't give a damn shud not vote.
In 1960, my beloved cousins told me that thay voted for Kennedy
because of his looks, and that his brother looked like "a dream boat."
That 's bad news.

I seek to oppose all USURPATIONS of power in America.
Historically, it has been the nature of governments to aggrandize their power
by stealing more of it, like a bank teller who visits the vault and
he stuffs cash into his pockets each nite, before he goes home.

A few nites ago, I received a call from a pollster taking a survey
on a subject of which I am ignorant. I refused to vote in that survey
because I did not know the relevant facts, nor did I care about the subject.
That 's how it shud be. Let the people who CARE decide.

I take it that u prefer that a person who is ignorant of the relevant considerations in an election
and that a person who does not care WHAT happens, shud have equal influence in that election
with a voter who is well informend and who passionately cares about the results of that election. Right ?

If there is a complex referendum on whether a State bond issue shud be rendered
to pay future debt for a particualar public works project whereof a voter knows nothing,
he shud be dragged to the polls by the police to cast his vote on that bond issue, right ?

For what REASON is that Bootlace ????????????

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

Maybe it would force people who dont bother to inform themselves on the issues to do so.

2 Replies

@Bootlace,

Bootlace wrote:

Make voting compulsory.
Then politicians have to cater for all the population, not
just the ones funding their election campaign.

And make election day a Saturday so the tax paying working class can vote in large numbers instead of just large numbers of the non-working moocher class that tax payers are supporting.

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Voting is compulsory in Australia, and it doesn't seem to have done them any harm. Don't pay a lot of attention to David, Bootlace--he's like that weird, unmarried relation that everyone puts up with on holidays, and otherwise doesn't give a thought to the rest of the year.

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@OmSigDAVID,

There is a number of countries where voting is compulsory. Wikipedia has an overview.

1 Reply

@RABEL222,

Quote:

Maybe it would force people who dont bother to inform themselves on the issues to do so.

Good words to live by, Rabel. You should try it sometime. Smile

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@RABEL222,

RABEL222 wrote:

Maybe it would force people who dont bother to inform themselves on the issues to do so.

I don't think that 's POSSIBLE, Rabel.

Even if a SWAT team drags recalcitrant voters to the polls,
and violently thrusts them into the voting booths,
thay can simply turn levers without reading to whom thay pertain
and leave
like blindfolded playing "pin the tail on the donkey".

"U can take a horse to water, but u can't make him drink."

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

Quote:

I don't think that 's POSSIBLE, Rabel.

I agree with Om. The notion that he [and a large proportion of other Americans] would actually consider informing themselves on the issues is less than zero. Why bother when it's so much easier to swallow the pablum y'all are fed.

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@Thomas,

Thomas wrote:

There is a number of countries where voting is compulsory. Wikipedia has an overview.

Maybe it coud be possible
that the citizens thereof vested those governments with authority to DO that.
I don't know whether that is in their constitutions.

We did not do that in America. At least in theory: America is a FREE COUNTRY.

David
P.S.:
A lot of people (liberals) believe
that the way to solve the problems that beset us
is to progressively curtail, reduce, truncate, strangle, subvert, and constrict freedom, more and more,
worse and worse; that the answer to each vexation is to cast another iron chain onto the body politic;
just keep progressively adding more of them on. To them: the enemy is freedom and the annoyance is liberty.

To the liberals, "progress" is defined as advancing toward a state of being wherein the body politic has no freedom of movement,
toward a state of being wherein EVERYTHING is either prohibited or mandated.

Those people r heavily into bondage & domination inflicted upon them by government.

Accordingly, thay wish to turn away
from the Instrument of Freedom: the Bill of Rights of the US Constitution.

David

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I understand your point David, but if voting was compulsory, politicians
would be forced to ensure the population was informed about their policies.
You will always get the donkey voters, you know, 1,2,3,4 etc down the ballot sheet,
but that is human nature. There will always be some that don't care.
Democracy is in danger when one thinks others should not vote because they are not smart enough.
Where does it end? A test before you are allowed to vote ? Who decides what the pass point is.
Do you have to be a member of mensa ?
If you say only informed people should vote, why are there people opposed to
each others policies? Are they not informed properly or is self interest at stake?
As Setanta has said, voting in Australia is compulsory and there seems to be no problem there.
Voting in Australia is on a Saturday for the reasons H2O MAN stated.
Just my thoughts.

1 Reply

@Bootlace,

Bootlace wrote:

I understand your point David, but if voting was compulsory, politicians
would be forced to ensure the population was informed about their policies.

I don't see that, Bootlace. Is that a non-sequitur ?
First we raise the issue of kidnapping voters
and dragging them to the polls; NOW, we consider
force feeding them political propaganda.
I count 2 distinct abuses there. Do the politicians have jurisdiction to do THAT too ?

Bootlace wrote:

You will always get the donkey voters, you know, 1,2,3,4 etc down the ballot sheet,
but that is human nature.

I have always been a fanatic qua voting every 2 years.
I have ofen worked in the political campaigns that led up to the election.
I got long term employment that way.
I almost always vote a straight ticket "1, 2, 3, 4 etc" as u put it,
unless I know of a reason to deviate therefrom; (occasionally, I have a reason).
I vote for the party that most closely represents my point of vu.

Bootlace wrote:

There will always be some that don't care.

Did I mention my beloved cousin, Norma,
who voted for the Kennedys in 1960, because she CARED about their looks ?
( I was energeticly working for Nixon for several months, in that campaign. )

Bootlace, for WHAT reason shud those who DON'T CARE be forced to vote against their will????

Bootlace wrote:

Democracy is in danger when one thinks others should not vote because they are not smart enough.
Where does it end? A test before you are allowed to vote ? Who decides what the pass point is.
Do you have to be a member of mensa ?

There is no test for the I.Q.s of voters.
Morons and idiots are eligible, if thay can sign their names. Does that please u ?
Children are not eligible, because thay r presumed to be WORSE than morons or idiots. To that: I object.
I have told children so.

Bootlace wrote:

If you say only informed people should vote, why are there people opposed to each others policies?

Because thay have different VALUES.
For instance, I did not give a damn what the Kennedys looked like.
I cared about what thay were going to DO if thay got into office.

Bootlace wrote:

Are they not informed properly or is self interest at stake?

Out of millions of voters,
OBVIOUSLY the electorate will be disseminated with all kinds of misunderstandings.

Do u think that if u stood there asking them questions
about the positions of the different candidates
that thay all say the same thing, about WHO favors WHAT, accurately describing those political positions??????
The results woud be a humorous joke, suitable for Jay Leno's "Jaywalking" on his Tonight Show.

In further answer to your question or comment,
it is also obvious that voters self-interests are at stake
and thay will vote accordingly. That's OK and its expected.

Bootlace wrote:

As Setanta has said, voting in Australia is compulsory and there seems to be no problem there.

I don't know much about Austrailia.
I was only there 1ce, for only about a week or 2.
Its a nice place in many ways.
I don't have the impression that it is a free country.

Bootlace wrote:

Voting in Australia is on a Saturday for the reasons H2O MAN stated. Just my thoughts.

I like Tuesdays.
Thanx for your thoughts.

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

I guess we could send the apathetic to some kind of reeducation camp.

I have always bypassed elections for judges. I don't want to vote on the basis of their sex or how their names sound, and information on judges and potential judges is oddly hard to find.

1 Reply

@roger,

roger wrote:

I guess we could send the apathetic to some kind of reeducation camp.

Yeah, Bootlace says that the politcians 'd be
forced to do something like that -- informing them.
I wonder if there 'd be TESTS for that.
The voters don't get out of the information camps UNTIL thay pass the politcians' tests.
Is that how it works, Bootlace ????

roger wrote:

I have always bypassed elections for judges. I don't want to vote on the basis of their sex or
how their names sound, and information on judges and potential judges is oddly hard to find.

Judges r ofen endorsed by ALL of the parties.

David

0 Replies

America making it harder to vote? WTH?

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