Poll: Are You Staying Up For The Election Coverage?

[Dreamer]

I will stay up to watch, fall asleep on the couch and wake up to watch some more, until I know which way it goes. Have to work the next day and this should be the last presidential election while I am still working part-time.

 

[Alan]

I confirm I will not vote (and I may be on call that day too !). I also confirm that it is my belief this election is really important. However, one candidate is 90% certain to win in the state I live in. Why vote then ? This is not like Europe where each vote counts, here they have Electoral Colleges, quite different from universal suffrage, which is superior in my view.

How does the USA not have universal suffrage? Unless you are using the wider definition to include non-citizens but then I don't know of any European countries that allow non-citizens to vote.

I only know the details of one European country, the UK electoral system, which is divided into districts of ~60,000 voters and you can only vote for a candidate within the district you are registered in. Many districts are solidly behind a particular candidate so you have the same situation of "why vote, Mr x is sure to win". The Prime Minister comes from the party that has won the most districts (known as "first past the post") so it can and does happen that the country's leader loses the popular vote but wins more districts.

In countries that vote for a President and use the popular vote to determine who wins then I agree with you that there is no reason to not vote.

 

[samclem]

I confirm I will not vote (and I may be on call that day too !). I also confirm that it is my belief this election is really important. However, one candidate is 90% certain to win in the state I live in. Why vote then ? This is not like Europe where each vote counts, here they have Electoral Colleges, quite different from universal suffrage, which is superior in my view.

But there are US congressmen or senators being elected, city officials, state legislators and executives, local judges, maybe ballot measures you might favor or oppose, right?
But I'm 100% in favor of folks staying home if they want to.

 

[obgyn65]

I have no idea what your point is, sorry.

... and if it goes to SCOTUS?

 

[Bestwifeever]

I confirm I will not vote (and I may be on call that day too !). I also confirm that it is my belief this election is really important. However, one candidate is 90% certain to win in the state I live in. Why vote then ? This is not like Europe where each vote counts, here they have Electoral Colleges, quite different from universal suffrage, which is superior in my view.

I live in the same state, so not to worry, I voted twice, Chicago-style, to make up for you not voting. If there are any other Illinois citizens who would like me to vote as their proxy, just let me know .

But I imagine many people whose jobs require them to be on call are finding a way to vote, either by early-voting as I did today when I realized I would not be in town on Tuesday, or by absentee ballots, which do not require an absence or a reason for voting that method.

 

[steelyman]

I live in the same state, so not to worry, I voted twice, Chicago-style, to make up for you not voting. If there are any other Illinois citizens who would like me to vote as their proxy, just let me know .

Do it for me, please. As Mae West said, "I'll do anything once, twice if I like it, three times to make sure."

Mae West Quotes (Author of Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It)

 

[Purron]

Shall we have an election eve party? Might not last the night before porky shows up but might be fun in the meantime. I'd be happy to chip in for a pay raise for the mods due to the extra work and aggravation ;-)

 

[samclem]

Shall we have an election eve party? Might not last the night before porky shows up but might be fun in the meantime. I'd be happy to chip in for a pay raise for the mods due to the extra work and aggravation ;-)

I wonder how the amount of daily traffic to e-r.org right now compares to 4 years ago when we had the Soapbox and the election was days away. I do recall it was a time free of strife and contentiousness. . .

 

[martyb]

I have to get up for work the next day, so I'll watch till bedtime, then if I happen to wake up in the middle of the night for a nature break, which I will........I may/will probably check in to see how it's going. But, no way I can stay up all night to watch.

 

[Purron]

I wonder how the amount of daily traffic to e-r.org right now compares to 4 years ago when we had the Soapbox and the election was days away. I do recall it was a time free of strife and contentiousness. . .

Oh yeah. Thank you. Good thing is this will be over soon. In the meantime, perhaps we could focus on disaster relief. www.redcross.org

 

[Nords]

You just need to go vote BEFORE you go surfing to get it to count before they call the election!

Imagine if all of America's election exit pollsters could only practice their craft in Waianae or Waialua...

No problem for me, though, we voted two weeks ago.

 

[Alan]

I confirm I will not vote (and I may be on call that day too !). I also confirm that it is my belief this election is really important. However, one candidate is 90% certain to win in the state I live in. Why vote then ? This is not like Europe where each vote counts, here they have Electoral Colleges, quite different from universal suffrage, which is superior in my view.

I have found out that the "popular vote" translates to "universal suffrage" in French, which is far from the English definition that I know. I'm sorry to have misunderstood your meaning.

 

[samclem]

I have found out that the "popular vote" translates to "universal suffrage" in French, which is far from the English definition that I know. I'm sorry to have misunderstood your meaning.

Thanks for that--I would never have guessed. The things we learn here!

 

[Nords]

I confirm I will not vote (and I may be on call that day too !). I also confirm that it is my belief this election is really important. However, one candidate is 90% certain to win in the state I live in. Why vote then ?

Your ballot has many more candidates than just the Presidential election. Even in Hawaii, a state with the legislature over 90% of one party, there are still candidates to choose between. We also have a very hotly contested mayoral race, and several sleight-of-hand budgetary issues being touted as amendments to the state constitution and the city charter. Some elections even have "None of the above" ballot choices, which allow you to exercise your right of free speech against the system.

You don't vote, you lose the right to complain. You also become part of the problem.

I'm not as hard-core as Heinlein, who believed that only military veterans could earn the right to vote. But I feel that a failure to vote is certainly grounds for abdicating citizenship.

 

[W2R]

Thanks, everyone! Some interesting and entertaining posts, but our consensus is that it is time to move on, as the thread has outlived its usefulness.

Porky Pig Cartoon Ending "That's All Folks!" - YouTube