How Do You Vote?

[38Chevy454]

Used to be permanent absentee since that was before early voting and I traveled a bunch. Now do early voting in-person when it is convenient. Never go on election day.

 

[sengsational]

We waste so much time, effort, and money on voting. We, as voters, do a horrifically bad job at selecting the best candidate as proven by the fact that in over 99% of the races, the candidate that spends the most money ends-up winning. So we all could all save a lot of time and get a better result if we sampled and trained a subset of voters instead of letting everyone vote.

What if, when you register to vote, your name goes into a list where a healthy subset would be randomly selected to cast a vote? Very much like jury duty...by law, you are required to do it.

Those selected would be required to go to "voting school" for, say, one week, where they would be briefed on the issues of the day. To keep the playing field even on the issues, maybe a wikipedia-style source (crowd sourced) could be used as instructional background material. Also, each person running for office would assemble a "pitch" that would be played for those people in the voting school. The politicians would also be required to fill-out a questioneer similar to the one the VoteSmart people use (tries to get at where the politician stands on various issues). These selected voting school individuals would be sequestered, so no politicians would know or be able to contact (bribe) them. The voting school people would become informed voters, then cast an informed vote.

What a concept...voting for someone not because you've seen more of their ads or signs, but because you've studied their past actions and their stated positions!

 

[Walt34]

What a concept...voting for someone not because you've seen more of their ads or signs, but because you've studied their past actions and their stated positions!

Dream on! That will happen when

 

[sengsational]

Dream on! That will happen when

Agreed that it will never happen. But the Industrial Engineer in me can't help but point out inefficiencies.

 

[HFWR]

What a concept...voting for someone not because you've seen more of their ads or signs, but because you've studied their past actions and their stated positions!

Reason enough to stop voting altogether...

 

[sengsational]

Reason enough to stop voting altogether...

I'm of a like mind, but I do vote, but vote for someone who will "never win"... The " third party candidate". I don't see it as a "wasted vote" because I figure it's the best way to flip the bird at our screwed-up system. And maybe if enough of us flip the bird at 'em, they will ease toward doing what is right for us instead of right to keep getting re-elected and lining their own pockets.

 

[samclem]

Reason enough to stop voting altogether...

That's another answer to the problem posed by Sengsational. If people who won't take the time to adequately inform themselves can just be encouraged to avoid voting . . . unfortunately, people's motivation to vote sometimes seems inversely proportional to their understanding of the issues.

 

[HFWR]

I'm of a like mind, but I do vote, but vote for someone who will "never win"... The " third party candidate". I don't see it as a "wasted vote" because I figure it's the best way to flip the bird at our screwed-up system. And maybe if enough of us flip the bird at 'em, they will ease toward doing what is right for us instead of right to keep getting re-elected and lining their own pockets.

Yep, I've voted third-party many times, for that reason, and with that results...

That's another answer to the problem posed by Sengsational. If people who won't take the time to adequately inform themselves can just be encouraged to avoid voting . . . unfortunately, people's motivation to vote sometimes seems inversely proportional to their understanding of the issues.

True enough, though my point was that many of the candidates, independent of party, have little to nothing to recommend them... IMHO, of course. We do still have statesmen/women, but they're overwhelmed by party machinery, lobbyist money, and, frankly, some are just plain worthless. I'm not entirely sure it's ever been much different.

 

[Walt34]

I'm of a like mind, but I do vote, but vote for someone who will "never win"... The " third party candidate". I don't see it as a "wasted vote" because I figure it's the best way to flip the bird at our screwed-up system. And maybe if enough of us flip the bird at 'em, they will ease toward doing what is right for us instead of right to keep getting re-elected and lining their own pockets.

I've thought about doing that too but it just seemed like a pointless exercise. Sort of like voting for the "regular" candidates.

So what I do is vote for the one I think will do the least amount of damage.

 

[sengsational]

I've thought about doing that too but it just seemed like a pointless exercise. Sort of like voting for the "regular" candidates.

So what I do is vote for the one I think will do the least amount of damage.

I don't want to stray into politics too far, but my thinking is that the two major parties tend to play "good cop / bad cop" with the citizenry. Thus, I look at the two groups as a single unit who's primary motivation is to keep things as they are (always tipping back and forth between just the two of them). Their primary goal in life is to keep (or get) their life-long political career going, and the needs of the populace is secondary. I do not think any of that can be said for third party candidates, because they "can't win". And, as I said earlier, I do think that the two major parties look at how many of us are thumbing our nose at them through third party voting.

 

[Badger]

My wife and I like to go to the polls and place our votes. I want to make my marks and watch the ballot being registered. For the first time I voted early but every other time we still only took about 5 minutes to get our ballots to vote.

I don't have much faith in the system/process though. I know everyone has the right to vote but I find that the majority of people don't know anything about the candidates or issues. Then we get crack head mayors like Marion Barry in DC or Governors like Rick Scott in Florida who was CEO of a company that committed fraud (14 felonies) on Medicare billings.

Cheers!

 

[mickeyd]

I have always rather enjoyed the live voting process here. I always vote early and watch the local paper for the "scoreboard." When daily voting numbers begin the shrink that's my cue to make it over to the near-by location. My location's numbers have been over 500/day last week so I have put it off until this week.

 

[RockyMtn]

ballot comes in the mail. I fill it out and drop it at the library two blocks from my house. Saves $1.40 in stamps for the two of us.