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During the 2004 Presidential election only 55.3% of all eligible Americans chose to exercise their right to vote. I don't even want to think about what the voter turnout stats are for elections at the local and state levels. Given that so many Americans choose not to vote, I'm assuming there must be some on this forum who don't vote. Could you please tell me (and everyone else) why you choose not to vote? I'm not looking to chastise anybody, I just want to know your reasons for not voting.
During the 2004 Presidential election only 55.3% of all eligible Americans chose to exercise their right to vote. I don't even want to think about what the voter turnout stats are for elections at the local and state levels. Given that so many Americans choose not to vote, I'm assuming there must be some on this forum who don't vote. Could you please tell me (and everyone else) why you choose not to vote? I'm not looking to chastise anybody, I just want to know your reasons for not voting.
Money rules politics and the people be damned. There is not one single candidate that can a thing for the public by the very nature of his avocation. He got into office because he played the money, graft game and took the money to campaign form the corporations that offered it and then when the election came, it was rigged by redistricting and not counting or double counting of votes. Voting will never yield a good candidate, they are all corrupted and love wars. Both parties are the same with different names, why not just call them demorepublicrats?
I've voted in every presidential election since I was able to. As the elections have come and gone, I'm getting to be of the opinion that it doesn't seem to matter who we elect. The choice seems to come down to the lesser of 2 evils.
For 2008, you will have a choice of continuing the last 8 years or 'having a change' not knowing what the change will be. I wish we had more and better choices - it's pretty sad. I'm actually thinking about not voting this year or voting for some type of 3rd party candidate.
As for state and local elections, I live in Illinois, so the political corruption both on the Democratic and Republican side is legendary. You only replace one set of cronies with another who talk 'reform'.
I have voted in every election I have been eligible to participate in. this ranges from my condominium board of directors to US presidential elections. I consider it to be my right, privilege and duty to vote.
I vote but am finding it difficult to do so this year. I need to vote for someone who is socially liberal and fiscally conservative. Neither party fits the bill - especially on the fiscally conservative part. Dems rob the middle class and give to the poor, Reps rob the middle class and give to the rich.
Other big issue is that these people in the House have a huge (85%+??) re-election rate. I remember we used to laugh at Russians when their communist system had 90%+ re-election rate. Democracy is not just being able to freely call someone an a$$hole - it is a system via which a society improves. Given the many problems we face every election cycle (healthcare, falling education standards, deficits) - things do not improve unless you are a company with a lobbyist. People count less. Same people get re-elected. Then we wonder why things are not improving.
I live in a firmly red state. The election result for this state's electors is a landslide, it is not in doubt, it is a foregone conclusion. The only thing my vote can do is to show one more endorsement for the electoral process, which stinks, and has now, for this election alone, been stinking up the place for about 22 months. This is an up-or-down vote for a process that is an insult to the intelligence and the integrity of Americans and the whole world, and I will not stand up.
Also, in US Congressional elections, about 10-15% of all races are won by an unopposed incumbent, which disenfranchises about a tenth of all voters as surely as if they were Diebold machines. The last time I voted, I looked at my ballot to vote for my House district, and found exactly one name on the ballot. I was given the same choice that people had when they voted for Stalin or Saddam. My fifth grade teacher promised that things like do not happen in the United States of America, but she lied. Sure enough, there I was, looking a ballot that had only one candidate on it. I walked out of the voting booth and never went back.
Now, if I live in a firmly red state and my Congressional candidate is the only name on the ballot, and there is no visible or tangible evidence of the fact that I had voted on big brother's touch screen anyway, somebody explain to me why I should humor them. I protest, the same way I protest McDonalds and Disney and prime-time reality shows. I don't patronize them. I consider it my right, my privilege and my duty to protest.
I vote for candidates, not empty suit party representatives.
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Not Voting Is An Ethical Choice
