good idea. but dude, is it really that hard to vote?

Sometimes in life you don’t get to set the 1/0 bit, you have to settle for being a tiny sliver under the integral curve. But just as they do in calculus, those slivers DO add up and not just in terms of the presidential election. The slivers you cast in local and state races add up in equally important but less visible ways, look no further than last week’s very close Orange County commissioner race, the tightly split NC house, and the up-for-grabs US Senate that will be impacted by the Senate race here in NC.

I too am bothered by the concept that some people don’t care enough to vote or that they may have the impression that their small sliver vote does not amount to anything. But although there is plenty wrong with “the system”, I don’t think it should have to bend over backwards to sample the opinion of people who are already abdicating their current vote and declining the small bit of empowerment that they are automatically granted (and not force-fed).

Up til now, politicians have tended to ignore “young people issues” because they didn’t vote. But the way to fix that is not to blame the system or the politicians (though there is plenty of blame that should go their way) but for young people to actually vote in huge numbers (like they will this year…I think there will be RECORD turnouts for voters under 30, even more than the big spike people are expecting). And then suddenly, every politician will start figuring out how to please all these young voters instead of talking all the time about Social Security and elderly people’s drugs. You can call it pandering to a new voting demographic, but it’s the way the system works over the long haul (and not just a single election). Unless your vote is proven to be “on the market”, no one will try and “buy it”. And my own personal opinion is that unless you participate in the system, you can’t really criticize it as not working. Oops, I didn’t mean for this to turn into a rant!

tim, i do think the system should bend over backwards to get people to vote. people don’t abdicate their vote. i think if you asked anyone they’d tell you who they’d vote for. i honestly can’t imagine running into someone who’s undecided about the upcoming election (for that matter, i can’t imagine running into someone who’s gung-ho for bush).

the problem is apathy. bush sucks, but i’m not singing home about kerry either. will i vote in the upcoming presidental election? you bet your ass. will i vote for kerry? of course. why? to remove bush from office. not because i’m wild about kerry. but 100 million people (1 in 2) won’t bother to cast a vote. i see that as a problem.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the system should bend over backwards in some ways that it is currently not….a longer period of possible voting time (several days to a week), having Election Day on a holiday instead of a Tuesday workday, same-day registration options, etc. This would help remove a lot of the small barriers that keep people from voting because of work schedules, registration difficulties, forgetfulness, etc. But as you point out, a lot of nonvoters don’t vote strictly out of pure apathy or disillusionment….it’s a conscious and very intentional decision to not go out and vote. That’s abdicating a vote. Now I didn’t mean to sound like I was attacking your idea of sampling these people’s opinions in some other way, that would be a useful thing (and some of that actually happens all the time via polls instead of via the census). But I don’t think we can defend apathy and then turn around and blame the voting system that an apathetic person refuses to participate in…I’d be more inclined to blame whatever conditions (the media, education or lack thereof, alienating political techniques, etc.) that lead to the vote-abdicating apathy in the first place…while trying to fight against this apathy and trying to convince people that they should participate in the imperfect system as it currently exists. I’m not in love with Kerry either but I think that people sometimes make the mistake of thinking that you have to choose a political candidate the way you choose someone to marry, that you have to find someone who is the perfect fit and that you’ll be able to live with for the rest of your life. When in fact, for better or for worse, it’s a basic utility-optimizing decision. “Which of these
people will do more to advance my interests/beliefs?” Anyway, I think we mostly agree on the central matter, voter apathy is a problem. Sorry if I got too hyped up about the idea of people not voting! It’s just a little pet peeve of mine when well-educated, reasonably well-to-do people intentionally choose not to vote.

It’s just a little pet peeve of mine when well-educated, reasonably well-to-do people intentionally choose not to vote.

What Tim said. Voting is one of the easiest ways to participate in the citizenship of this country. The barriers to voting are slim to none. Except of course, for the felons who have been stripped of voting rights, for people of color STILL in parts of this country, and people in Florida.

My kind have only been able to vote in this country since 1920. This is shocking, shocking, and I will exercise the right for as long as I can. When my daughter asks me why we go to the voting booth (I have voted three times in the 11 months I have lived here) I tell her because it is a civic duty and a privilege.

A far, far greater concern of mine, rather than voter apathy, is the snowballing use of nonverifiable voting machines — with your interest in information, I’d imagine that’s something you’d be way more riled up about too.

I can’t vote in the US. I wish I could vote in the US. You owe it to people like me, disenfranchised and deported, to vote. Yes, they are “just”primaries for unimportant things like the people who run our schools, the people who make decisions like whether or not NC ratifies the equal rights amendment (a no by the way, we only need 3 more ratifications and NC won’t) these things don’t merit your time and attention?