Agreed. I voted absentee a couple of weeks ago. My state (Georgia) has close Senate and Governor races. VOTE!!!
I just want to throw out there the fact that a certain county in Illinois is so friggin' inempt that a letter, an online absentee registration, and two e-mails did not get me an absentee ballot. This will be the first time in my life, since I registered, that I will have not voted. Goddamn beaurocrats. Everyone who can, get out there and exercise your right.
Goin to vote at lunch. Called my sisters and parents yesterday and railed on them to vote too, even though they are voting differently than myself.
I agree but making this plea in the Politics forum is a bit of "preaching to the choir". Regardless, I voted after dropping my son off at daycare. By the way, how do the rest of you handle your voting at the bottom of the ballot? When I get down to the insignificant positions like Justice of the Peace or Baliff, I don't know any of the candidates. So, I struggle to find any reason to choose one person over another. If the person lists a nickname (such as "Slippery Slim" on today's ballot), they immediately get my vote. On the VT ballots, they list the candidates hometown, so if it is the same as mine, I'll toss them a bone. Then it is generally choosing the candidate by their party. I'll try to help the third-party candidates get a low-level seat here too. What do the rest of you do when you don't know any of the candidates? Murf
f**ckers never sent me an absentee ballot. I'll make sure to take care of that in person before the next election (didn't have a chance to this time around, I'd been planning to come back to Philly twice since August but wasn't able to either time). Alex
When I don't know the candidates and where they stand on the issues I just don't vote for that contest. The candidate's party affiliation alone does not give me all the information I need to make a decision.
Voted, and no doubt to the surprise of many on this board I actually voted for a few Democrats. Of course the District of Columbia is one of the few places where the only two choices you get for many offices are the Democrats and the Statehood Green party. There was also a guy for one office from the Socialist Worker's party, but not a single Libertarian for any position. Man, talk about a pilgrim in an unholy land. Voter turnout was very light in comparison to 2000. And no wonder politicians don't care about issues affecting young people, I think I was only one of two or three people under 30 at the polling place. Rock the vote indeed.
For the first time ever, my polling place had a line this morning. Two people, but it was a line. Florida is already reporting problems with the new optical scanners.
I voted straight Communist Party ticket just to piss off Colin and Ian. OK, I didn't vote Communist but I did vote and my polling place was PACKED this morning at 7:00am. Maybe people are taking these elections seriously for once.
Uh oh. http://www.drudgereport.com/vote1.htm For the record, let me say that if this is true I do NOT think this is fraud, it's ineptitude. But if true, Florida's election result will be in the hands of the courts before they even get the votes counted.
Voted this morning in CT for Shays who helped me out a few years ago and for the local stae rep whose parents live on my street and gave extra candy when trick-or-treating last week. I also voted for the Libertarian and Working Families parties to keep everyone happy. (BTW I didnt see any Greens on the ballot)
There was a bit of a line at my polling place this morning as well. Voter turnout here in Minnesota is expected to be quite high, maybe 70% +. I abstained on voting for Soil and Conservation District Supervisors, since I have absolutely no idea what they do.
It is meaningless but I voted anyway. I feel that it gives me the right to complain about our so-called leaders.
The best thing about these new electronic touch-screen voting machines is that it makes it extremely easy to write in votes in the unopposed races. My polling place was fairly crowded, though we do have a gubernatorial race going on as well. The rain down here should keep turnout on the low side. But then, if rain is going to keep you from voting, I'm probably pretty happy that you're not voting.
Yeah, what's all this I hear about this election having record low turnout? My polling place was the most crowded I've ever seen it today -- maybe a dozen people either voting, waiting for a booth, or in line to get their ballot. Here in CA there was a big section of the ballot to confirm judges. Each question was like "Should Judge XXX keep his job in district Y, yes or no" -- I skipped all of those because I didn't research which judges were up on which issues. There must have been 20-30 judges on this list. Who has time for that? I also voted for the guy who listed his occupation as "Ferret Legalization Coordinator" for Lieutenant Governor.
Re: Re: Vote!!! That's when I usually throw a lesser party a bone or two. They don't stand a chance to win over the big two, so what does it hurt. Like Colin, I too voted for a couple of Democrats. That's usually not my way. But I just found Dick Postumous inept and I'm curious to see what Granholm can do at the helm of Michigan. And I jumped all over someone's ************ yesterday for blantently refusing to vote. Jackass thinks like George Carlin.
I've decided to exercise my Constitutionally protected right NOT to vote. We have Republicans openly hiring jack-booted thugs and off-duty cops in Florida and Maryland to depress minority turnout, and we've got Democrats lining up at the front door of every courthouse in the nation to disguise their total ineptitude and incompetence. My choice for Senator is limited to 1) a guy who abused Amtrak employees and threatened to pull their funding because a train was running late or 2) a LaRouchie whackjob, or 3) a guy I've never heard of. My choice for Representative is limited to 1) a guy who takes a half-million dollar loan from a credit card company while he's working on bankruptcy legislation that directly benefits the loan holder, and calls it an "error in judgement", or 2) a guy who's whole idea of a platform is "ethics matter" (They do. It's just that issues matter too.), or 3) the local Libertarian whackjob who I've never heard of despite the fact that he's been involved in local politics "for 20 years". And then there's the ballot issue. Do I vote an extra half-penny sales tax as a windfall to developers based on the promise that they're going to do something about the roads in this area, or do I vote against it, thereby validating the stance of the thieves in Richmond who are so unresponsive to the needs of Northern Virginia that we felt it necessary to put the damn proposal on the ballot to circumvent them? It's totally useless. It's a true Hobson's Choice. It's getting to the point where I'm more likely to run in the next election rather than vote in it. The upside is then you mugs can have all kinds of laughs at my expense next time around when listing the "independent party nutjobs" who are tilting against windmills.
I thought about that. It seems like an awful lot of effort to go to just to cast the ultimate protest vote. And I'd still end up ignoring the sales tax ballot proposal--which is the only thing on the ballot that carries any importance at all.
I have a handy way of dealing with initiatives. If either side's rebuttal uses exclamation points!, italics or CAPITAL LETTERS, then I make sure I vote for the initiative that will raise your taxes! and PUT YOUR CHILDREN AT RISK! Having dead, impoverished children is one thing, but yelling at me in a ballot proposition is over the line.
Give me a freakin' break. So black people show up to vote, see off-duty cops (who BTW aren't wearing their badges or anything else that identifies them as cops in Maryland) and they then run away? That's insulting to black people, cops, and your own intelligence.
No. What we have is a decision to hire off-duty cops. When the Dems caught wind of it, they filed a lawsuit which was dropped when Republicans agreed to insure that the off-duty cops would not wear any identifying portion of their uniform. That's a very different thing, and if you'd stop insulting your own intelligence long enough to think about it, you'd understand why. The other part of my post was something you conveniently ignored, I notice. It's not like either party is innocent of any dodgy activities. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4995-2002Nov4.html