Voting

[scottymc]

Just wondering if you guys in the U.S.of A. bothered to vote. Over here it is illegal not too, it's about a $100 fine, been debate over it for ages, I sorta lean towards compulsory voting as that way it is everybodys government even if they are misinformed, but having seen a line a couple of blocks long on the news at a polling booth in Chicago I can see why you might not bother, also, whats with voting on a weekday?
I couldn't decide which topic too hijack so I started a new one, just curious to find out how the worlds most powerful nation ticks, from a working persons perspective.

[byhammerandhand]

Well there are lots of reasons:

It's a federal election, administered and controlled by 50 states' Secretarys of State, and in most cases operated by the county Board of Elections.  Also over a number of time zones from Maine to Hawaii.  An individual ballot will contain national, state, county, and local issues and candidates.

"Electoral College" a compromise designed by committee.  Each voter does not carry equal weight.   If you are in a very partisan state,  there's a high probability that an individual vote for one candidate or another will make no difference.   Same would be true even for a moderately large number of voters, failing to reach plurality. Two million votes would not make much difference in California, one way or the other.   It would in Ohio (a swing state) or Montana (a sparsely populated state).

Weekday?   "We've always done it that way."     Many states now allow early voting or unrestricted absentee (mail in) voting.   There's simply no reason you'd have to wait six hours in line with weeks of advance voting.  


In the day, if you lived in Chicago, you would have voted, at least once, as did half the people in the cemetery.


As George Carlin used to say, "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."


'

[trimacar]

I was reared in Louisiana ( I want to say raised, but my father insistend cattle are raised, children are reared, oh, the truth in that statement when a belt comes your way!!)....the mantra there was vote early, and vote often....

From a business standpoint, I've been talking to numerous people lately, and the recent events are influencing small business owners in a big way....the cost of hiring new employees, who, to start with, feel "entitled" to the job, then dealing with all the insurance, family leave, and so forth....makes it tough...

[sofadoc]

Each voter does not carry equal weight.   If you are in a very partisan state,  there's a high probability that an individual vote for one candidate or another will make no difference.  

Yup!

Romney was such a runaway winner in Texas, it really wasn't necessary to vote. I early voted 2 weeks ago. It took me all of 5 minutes. I can't fathom why anyone is stupid enough to stand in a 2 hour line on election day. They must be the same ones that line up outside the post office at 11 PM on April 14th.

With our electoral system, it's technically possible for one candidate to carry the top 12 states by a single vote, and win the election even if the other guy carries the other 38 states in an absolute landslide.

[JuneC]

By mail, of course.  It cost $1.50 in postage, but that was probably less than the fuel required to drive to the polling station.  No clue why anyone would go stand in line when there are other options (varies by state for those not in the US).

June

[Mike]

I lome the mail also. There wss lines inse. Ounty florida.
The line and polinv station was closed at 7pm and. Oore were slowed inine. Ut i saw some still in line saiting at 10 pm on the news.
Im waiting for an app!  And dont like the electoral colledge

[JuneC]

In Palm Beach County, according to the local newspapers, early voting lines were 6 to 7 hours long.  I'm amazed anyone would even bother.  I guess you have to get a friendly voter in line with you to hold your spot while you go to the bathroom and grab a bite to eat. 

June

[gene]

If the news media believes that their candidate(s) will have a better chance of winning with a small turnout, you put on a news story about voting lines being 6 and 7 hours long.

gene

[scottymc]

Sound pretty confusing, specially since it is run differently state to state. But then if you looked at our system from the outside it would probably be a bit hard to follow. One thing I do like better is we vote for the party not the man.

[Mojo]

Sound pretty confusing, specially since it is run differently state to state. But then if you looked at our system from the outside it would probably be a bit hard to follow. One thing I do like better is we vote for the party not the man.

My Dad was a union / auto worker. He used to walk into the voting booth. grab the handle and vote democrat straight across the board.

I have always split my ticket and voted the person and the first time I did my Dad threatened to write me out of his will. :)

Chris

[sofadoc]

I always considered voting "straight ticket" to be just as irresponsible as not voting at all.
We have some really good people running for local offices here in my town who don't have a snowball's chance in hell (of getting elected) because they're on the Democratic ticket.
Meanwhile, the same Bozos keep getting re-elected on the Republican ticket, even though they have absolutely no idea what Republican beliefs are.

I also vote for the person, not the party.

Not being critical of Scotty's homeland. If that is the way their system is set up, I'm sure that all candidates and voters plan accordingly.

But our 2-party system is similar to the "Alliances" formed on a reality show, like "Survivor".

BTW When I come to a spot on the ballot where I don't know anything about either candidate........Guess what?.........I just leave that one blank!!!!  I'm not going to just throw my vote at the guy with the best sounding name.

I've always heard that when you're young.....you're idealistic, and think that you can change the world......so you start out being a Democrat.
Then you get a little older......get a little money in your pocket (and you want to KEEP that money).....you become a Republican.
THEN you get EVEN older......and start worrying about whose going to take care of you.....you go back to being a democrat. :D

[scottymc]

We vote for a local person who represents one of the 2 major parties or one of the smaller whacko parties or are completely independent, Which ever party is in power  can change it's leader whenever they choose and that leader also becomes the prime minister