Poll: Do you vote?

[Kielgasten]

Yes I do.
You don´t have the right to an opinion, if you don´t vote.
(minors exempted)

Personally, I find it really hard to sympathize with any of my country´s candidates, so I cast a blank vote.
I´m thinking that if enough people do this, the message might sink in.
(probably somewhat of a vain hope)

 

[Geek_DR]

In the European elections a few years back the BNP (far right wing party) "won" two seats to represent England in Europe. If 40,000 people (out of about 50 million eligible to vote) had voted for any party other than the BNP they would have no seats.

If you chose not to vote "against the BNP" on that occasion but were eligible to FUCK YOU. Oh and if you voted for the BNP... FUCK YOU TWICE.

This is exactly the reason people should vote, even if they don't like anyone. Go for someone you're least hating on, it's better than the worst case scenario.

Remember the Simpsons: "One for Martin. Two for Martin."

Apathy or defeatism is not a good reason not to vote. For Canadians, think of the NDP last election versus this election.

 

[loc978]

Spoiler: snip

Everytime there's an election, a lot of things are said, and the parties we vote for have all burned us in the past, so I don't see the need to vote because there are no parties that could possibly win that would change the status quo enough for real change to happen. I probably will start voting soon because it's becoming clear that that attitude is irresponsible, because I certainly don't want the next logical conclusion of "noone voting", which is an autocratic government, some sort of dictatorship, and I certainly don't like that. If politics is left to swing, it will swing in that direction, not in a more liberal direction.

So yes, I totally understand that not voting is irresponsible, but I have never actually voted myself. I will eventually though, probably in the next election.

As a US citizen, I vote locally and Federally. I've never voted for a presidential candidate who took a significant percentage of the vote, and I've only rarely agreed with consensus on local bills.
I say the system is broken through allowing advertising to be utterly rampant, and through the lack of enforcement of truth in advertising... oh wait, that was repealed. Money is more important than any other factor in winning political campaigns now... and that's why the system is broken.

in the president's defense (although he really doesn't need it), there are probably a lot of good reasons why they'd change their tune once they take office, it's probably not as simple as "going back on their word". The difference in intel between a presidential candidate and the president himself is so vast that it would be like from here to the moon in terms of space. On the campaign trail, a candidate can only make educated guesses as to what is actually feasible and what isn't, and then sell those things they figure are feasible as promises. Sometimes they'll be wrong in those assessments.

It's a sad truth of the system. Noone ever really knows what they're getting themselves into when they go for the white house.

I understand all of that. Just because I didn't vote for our current president doesn't mean I'm not rooting for the guy now. He turned out to be a better candidate than I had initially thought. He made too many promises out of idealism, and he won the election through no merit of his own, but rather because he had advertisers who were extremely good at their jobs backing him... but he's actually trying to deliver on his promises, and I can see that in his actions. Doesn't work, more often than not, but he tries.

...and that's more than I can say about any other president who has taken office in my lifetime.

 

[AngelSword]

The last vote I took part in was 2008's, and it further cemented my disdain for presidential runs. Since I live in Connecticut, a presidential vote is either washed away in a sea of blue, or one of hundreds of thousands, not significantly contributing to the whole.

The only reason I voted was because the girl I was dating at the time said it would be offensive if I, a white male who's always had the right to vote, opted to not vote.

If I remember right, I put down Cthulhu.

Spoiler

 

[Farseer Lolotea]

I vote so that I have the right to ***** about the results. It drives me nuts to hear people go on about how much they always hated a candidate when they made a decision not to vote against them.

Pretty much this. If neither candidate is all that great, I tend to vote for the lesser of two evils.

And in the States (if you're not familiar with how our politics work), it is almost invariably a choice between two candidates. I see that as at least something of a flaw in the system.

 

[Ham_authority95]

I would vote if I was old enough. Since I know a bit more about politics than your everyman, I'd better not waste an opportunity to be a know-it-all shithead.

 

[Trololo Punk]

Not of age quite yet but when I am I will vote.

 

[Tomster595]

No option for underage? I'm 17 right now so I'll be legally allowed to vote when I turn 18 in September. So yes, starting this year I will vote. While usually I don't really love any of the candidates, it's important to choose the one I think is most qualified even if he/she is overall overqualified.

 

[maddness666]

Until I find something worth voting for, no.

 

[Geek_DR]

No option for underage? I'm 17 right now so I'll be legally allowed to vote when I turn 18 in September. So yes, starting this year I will vote. While usually I don't really love any of the candidates, it's important to choose the one I think is most qualified even if he/she is overall overqualified.

Good point. Added.

 

[devotedsniper]

I've never voted, in my eyes whoever you vote for will go back on there promises just look at the UK's last election, so much for university fees staying the same (luckily i was already in uni so my prices do stay the same but everyone after me will have there increased).

 

[Altorin]

...and that's more than I can say about any other president who has taken office in my lifetime.

I can't think of a president that didn't try to deliver their promises... President Bush may have not made promises that appealed to you, but iirc he actually stuck pretty close to his guns about it. He might have been a bad president (only history can really tell that and not enough time has passed), but I'm sure he tried to give his constituents what he said he'd give them.

Clinton certainly did as well, and had his history not been tarnished by his sexual dalliances he'd probably be remembered as a democrat Ronald Reagan. Bush sr. started the war on drugs in earnest and brought it into the livingroom and while I disagree with the war on drugs in general, his heart was probably in the right place. And at least he managed to win a war in Iraq (;P). Carter is remembered as a horrible president by conservatives, but he did a lot for changing the face of the US in the poorer areas of the world, which later presidents (particularly Bush Jr) capitalized on.

I could go further and further back but it would be hard to find a president who promised a lot of things, had a huge popular vote, and then just completely flipped the country the bird and took things in a completely different direction then their campaign tried.

They all had their downsides as well (some more down then others), but I'm sure every man thought he was doing right by his constituents. You'd have to go back to Nixon to find a truly despicable president, but history has turned Nixon into a caricature of himself, and I'm sure if you were a blue or white collared, red blooded american, he didn't do too wrong by you - he only really screwed people who disagreed vehemently with his policies, such as hippies (which is a word I tried to avoid using because it carries as much historical irony as the word Nixon), and he was the one that started us down our "Pot is bad" road, so he can burn for that as well. But I'm sure when he went to bed at night, he slept well because in his eyes he was doing right by the people who voted for him - and he probably was.

And in my biased view, me defending Nixon is about on line with me defending Hitler, because I am exactly the type of person Nixon would have thrown in jail for being a useless pot smoking waste of space.

 

[babinro]

I vote but I feel the system is broken as a Canadian.

Firstly, we have one Right Wing party (Conservatives) and the rest of the parties are favoring the Left (Liberals, NPD, Green, Bloc). This makes for an extremely unbalanced voting system.

Every time we vote, people are encouraged to vote for the official opposition (usually Liberals until just recently) rather than throw their vote away to lesser Left parties in order to compete against the Conservatives. To fix this problem we need to either unite the Left wing parties (which I'm personally against), or add other viable differentiated Right wing parties.

The second major problem is that you get only one vote to support your local MP and the overall government. In my case, I tend to agree with my local Liberal representative but I support the ideals put fourth by the Green party. When it comes time to vote I choose to support the country as a whole...even though my local representative wouldn't be the best option for my city.

This may be a bit controversial, but I feel that many people SHOULDN'T vote. We are told over and over again that everyone should vote because it is our right. However, there is a large group of people who vote despite not knowing what they are supporting. They might vote some way because their friends are...or their family has always done so. These people should NOT vote unless they are doing so based on their own beliefs.

 

[Tharwen]

I'm still too young to, but I've also never been able to be interested in the system for long enough to feel like I can honestly make a decision anyway.

I expect I'll do some research before I have to make a choice in about 3 years' time.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Yes, but the Canadian system of government is broken, out of date, and designed to service an area much smaller than we currently occupy. Much reform is needed, but what are the odds of that happening? I'd wager about the same as getting struck by lightning on a blue moon, while winning the lottery.