How Many Voters are Here?Follow

Im up in Canada so no voting for president here but i skipped the 2000 election here in canada but participated this year because it was so close up here in Canada.

So 50/50 on my voting record.

voted then will vote again. If more people that said "who cares both parties sucked" actually went to the polls maybe we would actually have a 3rd party candidate with a chance.

With my one exception at skipping out (I wanted to vote, but decided something else was more important to me), I've always voted and will vote for one reason:

Not voting is avoiding the issue.

If I don't vote, how can I consider myself qualified to judge the job our government is doing? Voting is not just a privlege, but a responsibility.

I dislike both of the prominent candidates for President. I will most likely cast my vote for Dubya, because he is the one I would rather see in office. I'd rather vote for the little crazy man, Perot, but I think he's done jumping in and out of presidential races.

I think my vote will lie with Hilary Clinton this year, and four years from now, it will be given to Jesse "The Body" Ventura. A pro-wrestler could do a better job in the house than the monkey puppet we have now.

I'm sorry to rant a bit, but you do know that elections are held every year (sometimes twice a year or more), yes?.

In the U.S. "power" is distributed regionally, and most acts which can hurt or un-hurt people in your hometown are made by the City, County and State governments. Relatively the President of the U.S. has very little "power" over our daily lives.

In CA, the 4-year voters compound the problem with our Proposition system. Every four years we get a pleathora propositions which are nothing by pork-barrell crap with names like "clean water act". No one ever reads their voter pamphlet to discover that the bonds enacted have no legal tie to improve water quality (they go to the general fund). People think "clean water, yes, I want that" and vote yes. I want clean water too, but lordy people, please read these things if you are going to vote.

People who only vote every 4 years don't get it, and in my personal opinion do more harm than good. Stay home if you're not interested in the *real* cause and effects in government.



/rant off



Edited, Fri Jul 16 17:21:30 2004 by Yinnyin

Of course you may, its a free country.

May I also point out that you cannot simply go to the polls every four years and vote only for President. To my knowledge the ballot for President is the same as the one with all the local offices and propositions in every state. In most states incomplete ballots are discarded and not counted.

This means that everyone who only votes every four years and wants their vote to count has the same responsibility for local items as the real voters who vote every election and read their pamphlets.

My point is simple, local elections matter. Presidential elections matter too, but whoever sits in the White House does not have the power to change your life like your neighbors do.

There are far too many four-year-wanna-be-voters without consideration for local issues which will affect them and their community wether they realize it or not. This has been an enormous problem for quite some time, and has the most negative consequences on our democracy. The way it stands today, the CA proposition system should be discarded for lack of real interest (not to mention the fact that the state government has been abusing the system to generate cash for the past 20 years).

Its easy to blame one person for all rights and wrongs, its much harder to look into the mirror and realize where responsibility starts and ends.

If all you want to research for the election is the Presidential candidates.. do everyone a favor and stay home.







Edited, Fri Jul 16 18:36:13 2004 by Yinnyin

Absolutely, because really what we want is lower voter turn out.

You're right, local elections are important, but I would hazard a guess that plenty of people who vote in local elections started out voting only once every 4 years.

I've skipped every Presidential election in which I was able to successfully predict the winner. I predicted Gore last time, and he won the popular vote, but Bush ended up as President, so now I've go to go vote in the next election.

May I also point out that you cannot simply go to the polls every four years and vote only for President.


Sure you can.