Do you vote?

[LawlessSquirrel]

As many are in this thread, I'm Australian.

Ahh, Australia, gotta love all the freed- wait, you say I get to choose who grins at cameras and screws me over for the next few years? No thanks, that'll just be depressing.
...What do you mean I don't have a choice? Fine, fine, I can afford to sacrifice a day if my opinion of lesser-evils is so important.
Oh, you just vetoed my choice because you didn't like the outcome. Classy. Well golly, I sure feel like my voice was heard.
Excuse me while I high-five this wall with my face.

Spoiler

Yes, I voted. No, I'm not happy about it.

 

[Hosker]

Nope, I care not for politics.

 

[SckizoBoy]

I live in the UK and I probably won't bother to vote since I can't even tell the two parties apart. Plus I have no idea which one of them will destroy the county more, although I imagine Labour will do the worst job of it.

You mean three... though they've become so homogenised, it's rather difficult to tell the difference, eh...

OT: Yes, I do vote... and generally for whoever is least shit at time of voting... that's generally what it boils to around here.

 

[MetaKnight19]

I only voted because I had nothing better to do that day. I also wore this shirt to the voting hall.

My local MP was there trying to drum up support, saw my shirt and said 'That isn't very funny you know'. And I said 'Well it depends what you get caught claiming for'

 

[ShadowStar42]

This seems appropriate to many of the responses I've seen thus far.

 

[FamoFunk]

UK - I vote.

Main reason I vote is because I owe it to all the Woman who fought for me to vote. Feels like a kick in the balls (or maybe Vagina) for them if I didn't bother.

 

[USSR]

I don't particularly understand American politics.
Why have motivation to vote when the popular vote doesn't get the president elected?

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Yeah I vote but I didn't vote Conservative I'll you tell that.

UK - I vote.

Main reason I vote is because I owe it to all the Woman who fought for me to vote. Feels like a kick in the balls for them if I didn't bother.

Indeed, I would feel awful.

 

[Dandark]

I live in the UK and I probably won't bother to vote since I can't even tell the two parties apart. Plus I have no idea which one of them will destroy the county more, although I imagine Labour will do the worst job of it.

You mean three... though they've become so homogenised, it's rather difficult to tell the difference, eh...

OT: Yes, I do vote... and generally for whoever is least shit at time of voting... that's generally what it boils to around here.

Oh yeah, I forget about the Liberal democrats, although who really remembers Nick Clegg? XD

 

[Zantos]

I live in the UK and I vote. People seem to have this attitude that you're voting for a party, but you're voting for an MP. Maybe the main parties are incredibly similar, and they're all as bad as each other, but at the end of the day I choose who it is goes down to the house of commons with what we want for our area. You can hate the PM whoever it is, but I know my MP does a bloody good job.

 

[Cowabungaa]

I do, but I vote blank. Why? Because I don't support the current political system.

I wonder, can Australians vote blank? Because you're forced to vote and all.

 

[Gerishnakov]

Oh yeah, I forget about the Liberal democrats, although who really remembers Nick Clegg? XD

Well the Lib Dems do still make up a respectable percentage of the UK government so... they're still pretty important actually.

Yeah I'm a Lib Dem, what of it?

I vote, Lib Dem obviously. I would advocate voting tactically in the UK however, given our stupid electoral system.

 

[spartan231490]

I was in a conversation with a classmate the other day who proudly proclaimed that they don't vote and have no intention of ever voting. I was kinda baffled by this so I asked why. Their response was something along the lines of "all my choices are shit, I'll vote when someone good comes along".

Too be honest, I don't understand this logic at all. Especially when said classmate goes on to discuss how our politicians were doing such a bad job at running the country. The philosophy I was brought up on is that if you don't vote, then you have little to no right to complain about how those who are elected are doing a poor job. After all, your best method of fixing the problem of someone doing a bad job as an elected official is to simply vote for their opponent or threaten to do so in a letter or phone call. Not voting is the same as voting for them, it's an affirmation that you feel things are just fine as they are and that your elected officials can continue to do as they please. (or worse that you just don't care how they run things)

tl;dr: Do you vote, why or why not?

I vote, but to say that it is the best method of fixing the problem is not accurate. The two main parties have been doing virtually the same thing for decades. They both take away our rights, help the rich and big business while screwing the middle and lower classes, and increase the size of the federal government. Trying to vote in "3rd party" is probably no better as the abuses of many municiple and state governments suggest that any politician will break their promises and infringe upon the rights of the people.

The only option left is to write-in non-political candidates, and while this is my plan from now on, I don't hold much hope that it will work. It easily could, thanks to the internet you don't need big money or political backing to run a campaign. I imagine you could run a damn good campaign for free with youtube and facebook alone. But trying to convince a large enough portion of the american people to vote for the same non-political candidate is probably a lost cause, not that I won't try.

Perhaps I should clarify what I mean by a "non-political" candidate. I mean someone who isn't a politician. Someone who isn't even running for office, hence the write-in. No campaign promises to break that way. Find some famous person who has made their beliefs clear through whatever made them famous. An author who wrote books with a strong political message perhaps. Or a news host, or even someone like Steven Corbert or Jon Stewart. Men like this have revealed what they believe in and therefore have given a good idea of how they will behave in office, all without meaning to, which will prevent them from lying about it to get votes. I'm writing in an author, Terry Goodkind.

An acceptable definition of insanity is doing the same thing over an over and expecting different results. That is what the american public has been doing in regards to voting for the last 50 years at least. I for one, have every intention of avoiding such idiotic patterns of behavior.

OT: Everyone has a right to complain when their rights are stripped from them and they are mistreated by their government. However, I feel little pity for people who aren't willing to do anything to defend themselves from it.

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

Oh yeah, I forget about the Liberal democrats, although who really remembers Nick Clegg? XD

Well the Lib Dems do still make up a respectable percentage of the UK government so... they're still pretty important actually.

Yeah I'm a Lib Dem, what of it?

I vote, Lib Dem obviously. I would advocate voting tactically in the UK however, given our stupid electoral system.

Im glad i turned 18 just after the election. I would have voted Lib Dem but im glad i couldn't otherwise i would have been pretty pissed.
I did manage to vote in the Scottish election and on the AV vote which was pretty cool though.

 

[NotSoLoneWanderer]

I convinced my cousin to vote for McCain for me. I saw Obama's socialism immediately and my parents didn't listen to me. Not old enough to vote but everyone is old enough to convince or pay someone for there vote. GO DEMOCRACY! America needs a few years of being led by a good business leader. I guess I'm part of whichever party uses logic and logic only when making decisions. It's a rather small party.

 

[KeyMaster45]

By not voting they are making a statement that they don't identify with any of the candidates, they don't see themselves being represented. That's a pretty big deal in a "representative democracy" I think they are doing the right thing by not voting.

So I think you're fundamentally wrong to say not voting means you're satisfied with the way things are.

Then why remain silent if you aren't? If you sit around waiting for the perfect candidate things will never change. The lesser of two evils is better than just sitting back and letting the current situation run it's course.

 

[TankCopter]

Yes because a) the Australian government chose higher participation over the personal freedom to tell said government to go fuck themselves, and b) I find myself caring about the boring squabble-fest that is Australian federal politics.

On a State level, I may as well not vote because the current WA Labor party is incompetent and while I may not like Colin Barnett's methods 100% of the time, he at least displays some aptitude for his job and is more interesting than Eric Ripper or whoever they've replaced him with.

 

[Atmos Duality]

I do, but since I don't vote along party lines, it never amounts to anything anyway.

Not sure what's worse: The fact that people died for my right to vote and I find it meaningless, or that people died so we could locked into a system that (on its own) ensures that nothing useful will ever get done.

 

[Still Life]

I do, but I vote blank. Why? Because I don't support the current political system.

I wonder, can Australians vote blank? Because you're forced to vote and all.

Out of interest, what sort of system do you support?

Voting is mandatory in Australia, but you can choose to put in a 'donkey' (voting the way candidates appear on paper). I'm pretty sure that informal voting is also counted alongside 'donkey' votes also.

There doesn't appear to be any explicit clauses stating a person can be prosecuted for informal voting under the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918.

 

[Trivun]

I vote in literally everything. Referenda, general or local elections, when I was at university I was slightly involved in student politics there and voted in every election that came around. I even ran for the student executive (six students who are in charge of running the student union for a year as a full-time paid job, like a sabbatical from your course) - didn't get the job, but at least I tried, and had some pretty good ideas too. Basically, if you don't vote, you have absolutely no right to complain about the government or about whatever you voted for, unless circumstances mean you couldn't vote when you really did want to (for example, when you're too young to vote but would if you could, or if it's an issue that doesn't offer a vote - such as the UK's approach to everything the EU throws at us...).

Also, in the UK, you vote for an MP, which is arguably a much better system than voting for a party like in the USA. Over here, the MP has the duty to make sure their constituent is tretaed properly and dealt with properly. I'm a Lib Dem, but I hate what the party has become in the Coalition - I wouldn't vote for them any more if it was a party thing. But in my university city, I would absolutely vote for my local Lib Dem MP - why? Because he is a damn good MP, and actually cares about the people in his constituency. Everyone, that is, not just the people who gave him his position. And he has a great track record with student issues too, so yeah...