If you are a U.S. Citizen and over the age of 18, please register to vote
Dragonspear
Member Posts: 1,838
I realize this could easily turn into a flame war so let me get a few things straight.
While I obviously have my own candidate whom I want to win the election, I care more about you voting than about whom you vote for.
https://register.barackobama.com/
Using that link, you can find out how to register to vote in your state and in some cases even register yourself online or update your voter registration. My reason for sending you there is because its the easiest method for anyone in the 50 states to quickly figure out what they need to do to vote.
So please, don't turn this into a flame war. Discussing politics on the internet is usually a bad idea for all, as minor nuances in speech are regularly lost and things can get heated quickly. But please register to vote and please actually vote this election season. Your vote does matter.
While I obviously have my own candidate whom I want to win the election, I care more about you voting than about whom you vote for.
https://register.barackobama.com/
Using that link, you can find out how to register to vote in your state and in some cases even register yourself online or update your voter registration. My reason for sending you there is because its the easiest method for anyone in the 50 states to quickly figure out what they need to do to vote.
So please, don't turn this into a flame war. Discussing politics on the internet is usually a bad idea for all, as minor nuances in speech are regularly lost and things can get heated quickly. But please register to vote and please actually vote this election season. Your vote does matter.
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Comments
Like, say you live in Texas and happen to be a democrat. What difference do you make by voting? If I understand it correctly, it seems to me the republicans will win Texas anyway and get all their votes, and even if you and all your friends voted democrat, those votes will be null and void.
So, it would appear that it's only important to vote if you live in any of the swing states where the result is actually uncertain.
That being said many races, especially when you get down to the local offices, are legally non-partisan elections--meaning that the candidates can not list their party affiliation. My local city and county elections are non-partisan, and judicial elections are generally non-partisan at all levels of government.
TANZIG / MULCAHEY 2012
Bring Order and Commerce Back to the Sword CoastBesides, I don't view the casting of a vote analogous to playing a game and attempting to choose a winner. For me, it is an expression of principles. There are many who think as you've described, that voting doesn't matter because ultimately, the election rests on a handful of swing states, but I figure that there's no prize for picking the winner, so I'm not going to relegate my choices to the anointed candidates from the two major parties, even if I vote for some of those parties' candidates. I choose the candidate who best reflects my principles and values, and if they don't win, at least I voted my conscience rather than who had "the best chance" which no one can really know anyway. It's also true that historical vote trends shape future elections. For example, for years California was a solid Republican state, but now it's so far left that it might as well be a socialist country. In spite of that a Republican held the governorship until a few years ago and now there's a solid liberal in office. Voting itself is not as cut and dry as the Republocrat politicians make it out to be, but sadly, they've managed to convince most of America that their vote doesn't count, especially if you don't vote for one of their candidates.
Screw that and screw them.
From an outside perspective from across the pond, the best of luck with that one.
@HahaCharade Not to play grade school history teacher, but it's actually happened four times: Andrew Jackson, Samuel Tilden, Grover Cleveland and Al Gore all won the popular vote but lost their respective elections.
I think that the way politicians have successfully almost eliminated any semblance of state identity by federalizing nearly every important governmental function is responsible for the perceived failures of the electoral college. From constitutional amendments to usurping matters properly left to the states, every effort has been made to turn our country's voting mechanism into a majority rules free-for-all, one nation under God and all that nonsense. Lincoln and his Civil War ruined the electoral college in my view and made the executive the most important office in all the land, as well as setting the stage for the inevitable erasure of state boundary lines for the most part. Were we still to think of ourselves as residents of states first, with an agreement with other states to have a federal government, I think the electoral college still works. Nowadays, the common wisdom that we're voting as a nation has really led us down a horrible path in terms of our civil rights and individual perceptions of ourselves. Direct popular vote would be a disaster, in my opinion. We'd complete the transition to a popularly approved socialist government within a few elections.
That said, I am not voting this year. I currently reside in a state of which I am not technically a "resident." I'm a Nevadan who lives in Utah, though I could easily get residency in Utah if I really cared to. I don't know about Utah politics enough to want to influence the state, and feel like casting a vote for a state I won't physically reside in til I graduate and move back home is irresponsible.
Smaller states already get disproportionate representation in Congress, where the laws are actually made. The electoral college doesn't really help them because small states are still worth only a few points each, and altogether they'll be split between red and blue. That's nothing compared to impact of those juicy, decent-sized swing states that candidates and the media love to focus on. A study a few years back found that the vast majority of presidential campaign resources were spent in just five states. Our current system actively encourages states to be treated less equally, not more.
The other problem with the electoral college, and a more serious one in my opinion, is that it almost completely locks out the possibility of successful third party candidates. When it's winner-take-all and first-past-the-post, anyone who actually feels like their vote matters - i.e. people living in current election swing states - is strongly discouraged from picking third parties out of fear of "wasting" their unusually important vote. A system where you rank your candidates by preference would eliminate this problem, but with the overwhelming majority of politicians part of the established two party system (guess why), that probably won't happen.
If you haven't already, check out the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. Basically, it uses a "loophole" in the Constitution that says states can make their own rules about how their electors are chosen. In this case, participating states agree to give their electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote. This only takes effect once the compact has at least 270 EVs (enough to decide the election).
It's only about halfway there, but this looks like our best and possibly only shot at reform in the foreseeable future.
Also, the purpose of the Compact is to ensure that most electoral votes go to the national popular vote winner. Even if each state chose proportional electors, it would still be possible to get another Al Gore situation due to the huge amount of rounding. And the more you divide them, the more you might as well use the popular vote.
There's also something he didn't touch on and that's ignorance. If someone straight up told me they weren't well-read on the issues and didn't really know what each politician stood for, I'd salute them for not voting.
That's partly why I leave a LOT of blank areas when I've filled out elections in the past. Voting for judge so-and-so in district so-and-so when I know nothing about any of the candidates running, sorry. I don't feel like it's moral for me to weigh in on something so influential when I don't know the facts.
If there was some sort of initiative to get legit information out there so EVERYONE could make some sort of educated vote, then I'd say everyone really should go vote. As it is now, I'm not as passionate about it as I used to be.