Bittersweet Candy Bowl

The Red Menace. SO since it’s over and done with and something we can look back on and cry or laugh or masturbate furiously or whatever it is you do over past elections (cool story bro) I’ve decided to post up the Turnout Statistics according to George Mason University as it is really the best I can do right now.

http://elections.gmu.edu/Turnout_2010G.html
I’ll post a better source when I find one GET OFF MY JOCK, WOMAN

TL;DR: A little over 41% of eligible Americans actually voted. So when the remaining 58.5% start bitching about that time the Tea Party took over and started shooting immigrants and eating babies and ruined the economy and left the toilet seat up, you can just start hitting them until they stop moving or prove to you that they are not a part of that statistic.

In fact, it is your patriotic duty to do so.

Woo time to whip out my beating bat!

Well, my state had the highest turnout at 56.9%, over 70% of registered voters in the state.

In any event, let’s face it - too many idiots vote already.

Na, mandatory votes don’t work out that well. Brazil has them, too (I didn’t know it was mandatory in oz). I don’t see the problem in some poeple not voting. They are voluntarily choosing to trust their peers to make the right choice. It’s not necessarily that they are lazy, but possibly that they don’t think they know enough to make a concient choice.

I say it’s better to not vote, if you don’t know a lot about the candidates, than to vote on some random guy because of some trait of his, or just because of one specific, minor law project. It’s stupid votes that get people like the “Party for the Legalisation of Marijuana” into parlament (that’s an actual party here in NZ, have been running for parlament seats every election that I’ve seen, and occasionally even manage to get one guy there).

Then again, Migrant, many people do not vote because they do not think their vote will count, or because they are plain out lazy. People who do have a (misguided, in some cases) cause to vote for, will do it because they feel that they have an obligation to do what is right. Even mistaken causes will be objects of this. In my experience, people who do not vote are far more likely to know what they should vote for than people who think they have to. ^_^

I already know of a few people who need to be hugged with a crowbar.

If you fail to practice your right to vote, you should know that you have no real right to complain.

Bitches.

@ TD: Hell, maybe it’s the “I just have to put this in the mailbox” as opposed to “I have to stand an hour behind sour smelling retards arguing politics while the poor voting clerks literally have to argue with the people who don’t understand how voter registration works until they bring, miracle of miracles, photo identification” or something along those lines. That was my experience with the process, anyway. (Congratulations on your governor’s “historic third time” by the way? Iunno, it’s been all over the news :.D) So that brings me to my next point:

@ Taeshi: While I was at the polling station, election clerks most certainly did not have their shit together. I’m not saying it’s okay for you to turn into an impatient little pissant (which I had the wonderful fortune to witness), I’m just saying that I think there may have been more than one occasion where the process was so convoluted that some people were outright cheated out of a vote (the woman in front of me was an African immigrant and registered voter and they still turned her away over some tedious bullshit or, in one other case, “I’m sorry, we can’t find you in the system&rdquo. I don’t think they do this on purpose (I’d like to think that) but it was obvious they were all volunteers dealing with a shitty system.

I can’t speculate on what drives one to vote or not vote. I don’t think it’s outright stupidity that causes a lot of people not to vote. I think there’s some combination of ignorance toward the process and sheer stupidity. Take a look at the percentage of college students who vote. ANYWAY, it’s over, shameful or not. And all things considered it wasn’t as terrible as, say, 1996.

TL;DR COOL STORY BRO
Give me my damn mail vote like TD has and then we’ll see what that does to voter turnout. >8(

I agree with you completly Gabriel, if you don’t vote you have no right to complain.
Minnesota came in second at 56.8% just behind Oregon. I think the biggest shame is D.C. at 29.7%.

I have started to notice that when something is a potected right that you don’t have to fear reprisals for or that you risk your life doing (as in some other countries), people have a tendency to “take for granted” that right. It is really a shame.

Jerk said: I can’t speculate on what drives one to vote or not vote. I don’t think it’s outright stupidity that causes a lot of people not to vote. I think there’s some combination of ignorance toward the process and sheer stupidity.

I think it’s more apathy towards the political process than anything else. People either don’t think they can make a difference, or they just simply don’t care to take the time and trouble to filter the massive white noise of politics and look at the real issues.

In my experience, most people who don’t vote, usually don’t complain much either. It’s some annoying people whose candidate lost who keep complaining and bitching. People fought for their right to vote, it’s not an obligation. Nobody has to vote, that’s the whole point of it. Even in countries where voting is mandatory, you have the option to “nullify” your vote at the voting station or to vote “blank” (nullifying means your vote isn’t counted, blank votes go to the candidate with the most votes already).
Mandatory votes or bullying people into voting is just another type of oppression. Everyone makes a concious choice whether they’ll vote or not, and it’s up to them to live with the consequences.

Eh, we have mandatory education and that is not oppressive. ^_^

You can still be homeschooled.
Plus, it is oppressive, it’s ust that “we” don’t trust people under 18 to make the right choices for themselves, so education is forced upon them whether they like it or not. Some forms of oppression cannot be helped, yet. Pets are not allowed to vote / have much freedom either. That is oppression, but no one seems to mind. However, we CAN help it when it comes to voting.

in the most recent election in my city for mayor, i had little knowledge about the candidates platforms, i knew for a fact i wasent going to vote for the conservatives because im tired of them and they are dickbutts, The librals up here ran things for so damn long and had so many scandals that the chance of them getting into power again on a national scale is slim and the party is tired and essentially leaderless and without direction. the NDP seems okay and their leader has a descent stache, but no one votes for them.

i usually vote green myself, but i slept through the last election

no idea about the other dozen or so parties up here

True enough, Migrant. I just think that mandatory voting is not oppressive the way, say, compulsive dining at a Subway would be. Voting is a civic duty - you do make decisions that, in a way, will affect your future and the futures of everyone else. Those choices should be more than just “eh, I don’t care, let the others vote”, in my opinion.

But of course, I have no experience or knowledge that claims compulsory voting is better than not. This is just what I think. ^_^

@ wacko: On some level, I can sympathize with that apathy. There’s so much misinformation from both sides that it all comes out as static. I’ve voted every time I had the opportunity, but it’s been a pretty dismal process trying to get legitimate sources of information about these kind of things. I mean, think about the sheer volume of propaganda put out by everyone. It’s ridiculous.

wacko: “…they just simply don’t care to take the time and trouble to filter the massive white noise of politics and look at the real issues.”

This.
As someone who is one of the apathetic/lazy ones who doesn’t want to vote, I can safely say that other than laziness, this is my main reason for not voting.
For one thing, all the candidates are human. That guarantees none of them will be even close to perfect for the job.
Then, you can’t tell what their true motives are going to be once they’re in office, and what’s more, even if they have the right intentions, they may go about it in the wrong way and bungle everything up.
I don’t vote, not because I don’t think my vote matters, but because I think I’m screwed no matter who I vote for. XP

well two things happed that made a bad situation worse. (well three if you count voting machine fraud, but that story is a decade old now. the gop has been doing that shit for a while. I’m not getting into the Dibold machines. look it up if you’re interested. Especially if you live in Ohio of Florida)

#1 MC Rove some how manages to still be a relevant source of information. It was no doubt his calculated plan to stir up the crazies using fox as his bully pulpit. He has a fucking gift for getting poor upset people to vote against their own self interests.

#2 A right wing nut job in a pimp suite got all of Acorns funding pulled. This heavily edited video (where the Acorn rep is obviously laughing at this asshole and his “hoe” in their fucking redonk no one would take you seriously Halloween costumes) should bot have been a news story anywhere. lending it any credibility at all was wrong. It has since been found that this tea party nut job is full of shit and so was his video, but Acorn as an organization is pretty much gone and so are all the voters they work to register.

@ dXrandomXb: And since it’s a representative democracy, there’s nothing whatsoever holding them to their campaign promises. It’s basically who can put forth the best face for the voting constituency. As long as you figure out who actually goes out and votes the most often, all you have to do is draw a vague portrait of what they seem to want to see in their ideal person and basically ignore the rest.

@ Jerk: Eh, wait. How does that solve anything? If I’m reading your comment correctly (and I might not be), all I’d know is what someone else wants in a candidate.

Well, you know: spin control and marketing. Just look at the before and after pictures of Hilary Clinton when she hired her image specialists to groom her for her presidential run. I’m not trying to single out one party though. Everybody does it.

I’m kind of strung out so my train of thought is doing everything it can not to derail, and probably failing miserably. OH WELL.

At any rate, it’s all pretty complicated. I’m not good with politics and the people who tend to talk about politics all the time are boring assholes anyway. I’d rather just sit around and make inappropriate jokes all the time anyway.

Actually, I don’t know about spin control and marketing. X3 I could have done a better job of displaying my distance to politics. Anyways, since I’m not interested in voting, I don’t keep track of modern politics either. (I also don’t keep track of a lot of news, but that’s for different reasons)

As another response to the entire thread, I realize that since I don’t vote I shouldn’t complain about the people in power. I do my best not to. However, regardless of whether you think voting should be mandatory or not, it isn’t. It’s not required, therefore not doing it shouldn’t infringe on my ability to express my opinion, especially if the person in power is doing something I view as bad.
But this all assuming I’d complain about something bad, and not nitpick about every little thing he/she does. cx Those kind of people really should shut up.

Well, spin control is just about suppressing the inevitable sordid details that crop up during a person’s life. Like Obama using cocaine, Clinton using pot, and Barbara Bush using alcohol during every pregnancy.

The wad part is this election had unusually high turnout for a midterm election.

Actually, turnout has been increasing steadily since they started the campaigns to increase it. To be fair, they haven’t really focused on turning out the vote for midterm elections as much as they had for, say, presidential elections. I guess they think it’d be harder for their target audience to understand its importance, which may or may not be fair since I really don’t know their demographics. It’s not like the Above The Influence campaigns that work for shit.

It’s never going to be perfect, I think, but things are getting better on that front and I think that’s something we should take solace in.

Yes but 60-70% would certainly be nice. Even Obama’s election was at around 58%…
A good portion of the voters in my state were Latino voters they seemed to be pretty motivated.

think about this
do you really want those idiots who dont vote to vote?
they are pretty stupid if they choose not to vote, and they would be deciding the nations leaders if they did vote.

Because, to some people in the country, that would seem like an infringement of their rights to choose whether or not to vote. Personally i will vote every chance i get because i care about preventing the election of crazies like the tea party candidates. I would love to have it be law to vote but i doubt that will ever occur. Too many idiots in this country for that

I would prefer people not voting to people voting and not knowing what their candidates stand for.

I don’t think that you can force people to educate themselves when they don’t want to.

I would point out that some of us voting would be a liability. I work 16 hour days 7 days a week until December. I don’t know the name of any of my candidates much less what they stand for. If I was forced to vote…well…first I was at work from before till after the polls closed, and second I’d have to write in myself for all the positions to prevent me from adversely affecting the outcome with random guessing. I’m not trying to excuse my ignorance its just a fact. I honestly don’t have much of an opinion on anything in the political arena in the moment… and no I’m not working so much because I’m trying to make ends meet or something, It’s a temporary thing associated with a project.

I work longer hours than that and know plenty of people who do too, and that didn’t stop us from voting. There is also the option of early voting and absentee balots that can be mailed ahead of time. It can be a pain in the ass to sift through the various propaganda, but most of that can be dismissed for the BS it is anyway. With the way things are, we really can’t afford to not use what little power we have to attempt to make a difference.

@ Suitcase: The rules in place make it ridiculously hard to change the rules in place, so certain elements of the system remain static. And you’re right, that’s a pain in the ass, so here’s the thing: it should be as ridiculously easy to vote as it seems to be in TD’s state and it probably should be mandatory, but in US politics the people who have the power to change those rules are the people who worked their way up through that system in the first place. It seems like a Catch-22 to me.

SuitCase said:Why would you allow the laziest of voters (youth) to be lazy and not be fined, when youth tend to vote progressive and further the interests of humanity by voting for a somewhat reasonable party?

So what you are really saying is: “I want those people who don’t vote to vote, because I think they would vote for MY candidate, and I want him/her to win!”
Which means you somehow think your opinion and your choices are more important than those of others… People who don’t vote CHOSE not to vote. They don’t do it by accident.

@Jerk: Vote by mail and electronic votes are much more succeptible to being tampered with, which is why many countries don’t do it.

I’m not saying either of those specifically, just that it should be easier.

@ Sean:
You work >112 hours a week? Ouch. Not to go OT but damn!

It would be easier if the clerks were paid properly, and not “volunteers”.

You’d think so but that still doesn’t account for the DMV.

Well Migrant, most people do think their opinions are better than those of others, that’s how opinions work, but thank you for pointing that out, it’s nice to see that. And you are right, those who don’t vote very often chose not to, whether they think their vote won’t matter or they refuse to vote for candidates they don’t believe in.

Times are tough and I’m rather fortunate to have the jobs I do. Due to some recent improvements I won’t have to work so long, however I’m still balancing college classes, Theatre set construction, packing and unloading truck orders and various freelance work. I haven’t been able to make a positive dent in my savings for a couple of years now. But it could always be worse.

I didn’t mean to jump on you earlier, but for things that have such a major impact on your life you need to make the time to do them.

Yay, Ace is my friend

Rod Blagojevich for President in 2012

@ Sean,
No offense taken. I agree wholeheartedly. I’m quite ashamed of myself frankly. I don’t have much of an opinion on anything at the moment is the problem. Unless its related to our UAV or the pizza delivery guy I’m pretty clueless. My engagement has been taking hits if that gives you an idea of my singlemindedness right now. Yes, I realize this is unhealthy, no I can’t help it. I have been politically active in the past so I’m doubly ashamed of myself since I do feel that there are grave things going on around me and I don’t know enough to contribute to the debate. I am grateful that the tea party is very weak where I live so i can at least take solace that I didn’t aid and abet that…but I’m still ashamed.

Fiscal conservatism, bitches. You don’t like it, get off your asses next time.

I don’t and I did. Reganomics fails.

I don’t know. Those Undercover CEOs seem like upright citizens to me~

@suit- the people who choose not to vote are the most easily misled. if they were forced to vote it would likely just cause a huge rise of demagogues. whoever speaks best would likely win.
and whoever called their opponents Hitler most would have more power.

point-most americans are lazy idiots.

it was gonna be my first voting ever but i didnt register in time….. D: