Nobody should stay home and not vote

[ck4829]

I've read that many people, not DUers, but other people will stay home and not vote at all. This is a bad idea. Perhaps some people don't like Kerry, I don't know. But, this is possibly the most important election in American History. On the one hand we can have change with John Kerry. Or on the other hand we can have Bush, a person who is getting close to, if he isn't already, being a Tyrant. We can have 4 more years of Extremists in the Courts, Senate, House, and in the White House that do not represent America in any way. If you meet a person who says they aren't voting, I strongly urge you to tell them to vote for Kerry or against Bush. Yes, I know it's the same thing, but it's putting a different spin on it. If Bush steals 4 more years, who knows what could happen. Some of us have an idea of what will happen, and it won't be pretty.

[SheilaT]

1. Ideally, in every election,

including the boring little local ones, all voters should get out and vote.

I'm beginning to suspect that this election will actually have a lower turnout than usual, not the high one everyone is optimistically expecting. One important reason is the Electoral College system, coupled with memories of 2000. Why should I bother to vote for Kerry since I live in a state (Kansas) considered to be reliably Republican? Why should someone bother to vote for Bush in a state considered reliably Democrat? And the more the media comes up with stories about which specific voter groups or precincts are going to be the ones the election will hinge on, the more it's pointed out that my vote does not matter.

If you've never read it, read "Franchise" a short story by Isaac Asimov in his short story collection "Earth is Room Enough" which you can find in a library or purchase through Amazon.com. It's an eerily prescient story written 50 years ago in which polling has become so sophisticated that the election comes down to one voter deciding everything.

[sugarcookie]

2. I don't have anything official to back

up my statement..but a caller to the Mike Malloy show really got me to thinking about voter turnout. A woman from Florida called in and she had the percentages of registered voters that actually voted for each party (not sure which county). She said 22% of registered Dems turned out to vote and 31% of the registered Repubs turned out to vote. I don't have any more specifics other than those figures and the fact that the lady was not too happy about turnout.

[SheilaT]

4. Those numbers sound like the turnout

in a primary, or bond issue or some local election that the majority of people don't even know is occurring. Of course, it's possible that Florida has an unusually low voter turnout.

Part of what confuses the issue, is that sometimes they're talking about eligible voters, meaning all citizens over age 18 who haven't had the right to vote taken away for some reason, and sometimes they're talking about those actually registered. And if the latter, what also matters is how recently the voter lists have been purge. Unfortunately, the concept of purging has gotten a bad rap because of what Florida did four years ago, but in reality, if voters who've died or moved away aren't periodically removed from the rolls, there might be significantly more registered than are really around to vote.

In presidential elections the last decade or two, about 50 percent of eligible voters, not necessarily those registered, actually turn out. The ease of registration does not seem to be making much of a dent in voter turn out. I'm not entirely sure why.

I live in an area where typically 70-80% of registered voters show up for the presidential election, but that's because this is a very middle-class area. What I am noticing in doing door to door canvassing, that in my one neighborhood that is clearly working class, fewer than half of those people are registered.

And even in the middle class areas I find people not registered to vote who aren't interested in becoming registered. And it's all too easy to come to the conclusion that your one vote doesn't count, especially in a presidential election, what with the idiocy of the electoral college. Local elections are far more likely to be decided by a small number of votes, and in that case your vote REALLY does count, but it's just those local races that voters are least likely to be well-informed on.

[sweetheart]

3. No overconfidence

Many non-voters don't bother to turn up, if their vote just adds to
a winning margin. One of the reasons behind 2000, was an apathetic
turnout expecting Gore to win in a no-brainer. Kerry can win this
time, but we need everyone to understand that it is not a no-brainer.

The new 527 that is registering voters may have massive impact on the
statistics of turnout. One would hope such a critical election,
as critical as lincolns' decision to fight the civil war, that such
an election might be worthy of some people turning up at the polls.

[rniel]

5. When people tell me

I'm fed up with the 2 political parties and I'm not going to vote. I think this is part of the Republican plan. Stink up the whole political process so bad and rotten that people don't vote anymore.

It has been working for them for a while now.

[chiburb]

6. If they're Republican, I HOPE they stay home...

Seems pretty clear to me.

[SheilaT]

7. In 1976 I was attending a community college

in Northern Virginia (Northern Virginia Community College, to be precise) and on election day that year, one of my professors at the start of class said, "I'm sure you all realize that today is election day, and I certainly hope that all of you are registered to vote and plan on voting today. However, I want to remind you that a small voter turnout favors Republicans, and so if you're a Republican, don't vote."

I was the only student who got it.