Gonna vote?

I voted with my AK absentee ballot. God I cannot WAIT for this to be over.

Iron clad unwritten rule in my family: "If you don't vote, you can't complain" Yep, gonna vote in the town I used to live in since I never was able to get to the town hall in time to be able to change to my new town. My boss, the rabid Democrat, has allowed me to be able to leave early tomorrow to get to the polls.

We have compulsory voting down here, I have occasionally wondered at why your country has voluntary voting. I would have thought it was important enough to make it compulsory. It will be interesting to see how many actually do turn out to vote this election. Why someone wouldn't vote is just such a foreign concept for me

Veb's voting for the first time ever. I was so friggin excited to vote in 92. I was 18 going on 19. I've only not voted once and that was for Bush/Kerry - I think I was just too lazy. Should be interesting how many turn out to vote total.

We have a choice, though imho I consider it a duty; however, I don't think I'd like it if I was told I HAD to vote. Our nation was founded on freedoms, and I see something like making it compulsory as a removal of a pretty basic one. To me its more important to keep that freedom actually. But that's just me.

I voted, weeks ago, absentee...I always vote absentee because I hate standing in lines to vote.

Yup already voted!

Im voting tomorrow, but in a town of 300 including children, Im hoping lines wont be too bad hehe.. and the church is right across the street from my house so I can always peek out and aim for a time when there are fewer cars.

We can vote at 16 in the UK so I've voted twice. Well I've voted for the General one once and the Scottish one once, and I ignored the second General election because its just becoming a joke. Why give Scotland its parliament back when we are still told to vote for the English ones too? o.O

But now that I'm in Canada I dont get to vote anyway yet cos Im just a foreigner

Absentee ballots ftw. Already voted with mine

I plan to

So I'm reading this other board (if you wanna know, hit me up on aim) and I just happened upon their politics section. It's about the most vicious thing I have ever read. Grown women (you knew this was about angry chicks) completely wiggin out over:

Foreigners who care about the US elections, who obviously must be jealous or obsessed
Obama being a baby killer
That Obama isn't a baby killer, but the mothers who abort are
Obama being a muslin and lying about it
Hating Obama so much that they wouldn't let him clean their toilet (i shit you not, no pun intended)
That people who vote for Obama because his grandmother died are stupid
People who vote for McCain because he was SNL are just as stupid
People who only read extremely conservative websites and refuse to research or fact check anything about it

Now don't get me wrong, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I'd like to think that even here on TAC, none of us are that fucking stupid. With the exception of personal feelings toward abortion (to each his own, not going to call you an idiot for feeling how you do - just don't do it to me) I cannot believe these women, who have known each other for quite some time (as far as I can tell),are flat out rude, abusive, and just fucking mean.

Politics hurts. =(

Tamaelia ~


from wikipedia.

This is why I won't bother voting. It doesn't matter because my vote doesn't truly even count.

On top of that, neither is a good choice and I don't want either to win, and I'm not going to waste my time voting for the lesser evil because its a waste of my time!

Agree with Vex *nod* Told someone tonight, much like they showed on Southpark (I rarely watch it anymore but this one stuck with me for some reason) it's a choice between a giant douche and a turd sandwich. Neither candidate appeals to me really. Pretty much think everything is fucked no matter which way it goes, so just gonna ride it out and see what happens.

Actually, it is coming back to me abit now, thanks for the reminder Vex. So if you were going to attend a polling booth, your paper wouldn't be a choice between Obama and McCain? but rather a selection of nominees from your state? Do they do anything else other than pick a president? Are they also senators or such? I will of course now spend time doing my own reading but please feel free to enlighten me here to, I like to hear this from real humans.

We voted in November last year for our Federal government. It is roughly two-party based with minority representation from Greens and other groups. Our Australian Labor Party roughly equals your Dems, our Liberal Party would be your Republican. We have the National Party which is farmers/rural producers and they are usually in a coalition with the Liberals. At the moment we have a Labor Federal Government.

I don't know if you know much about our system, we vote for 3 different levels of government; Federal (the top tier), States (middle, duh), Local (small regional sections). Local govt mostly looks after smaller roads, parks, amenities etc. State has broader again, big roads, hospitals and education mainly, Federal is income tax and welfare and suchlike. There is argument for and against our system, some say it is cumbersome. I personally don't see a great alternative but am not particularly enamoured with the way things are now.

Happy voting anyways or not voting as the case may be! lol

Im still voting today, Im in a state thats not completely decided, and I dont want it to turn blue!

I'm going to Vote tonight, but like people been saying it doesn't really mater.

http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2008/11/vote-vote-vote.html

The best thing about a democracy is that anyone can have a voice.

The worst thing about democracy? That anyone can have a voice. Even the really stupid people who don't deserve to breathe, let alone exert their will on others.

The electoral system is a holdover from the days when the vast majority of the population was uneducated and had very little access to information about candidates. They needed to be protected from their own ignorance. Those days are gone. Sadly, yes, there are still millions upon millions of ignorant and short-sighted people in this country, but there are enough of the smart ones that we can take care of ourselves.

The electoral college should be abolished. Right now it is just an outdated legacy system that politicians are forced to play if they want to remain competitive. As a result, citizens of states that are less important in the electoral college do not receive as much consideration from the candidates as those in other states. Also, since all states get at least 3 electoral votes, citizens of states with very low populations end up having their individual votes counting for more than citizens in larger states. A popular vote means that one person's vote is worth exactly that of any other person's vote. Simple and beautiful.

The only danger of a popular vote is that which I said earlier: People can enslave or endanger themselves through their own ignorance. However, I think that we have matured enough as a society that we are ready. As an example, despite the best efforts of Obama opponents, only about 5% of Americans actually believe that he is a muslim.

This post is way longer than I meant it to be. I was originally just going to copy and paste this:

"You may have noticed that there's one thing I don't complain about: Politicians. Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says, "They suck". But where do people think these politicians come from? They don't fall out of the sky. They don't pass through a membrane from another reality. No, they come from American homes, American families, American schools, American churches, American businesses, and they're elected by American voters. This is the best we can do, folks. It's what our system produces: Garbage in, garbage out.

....I have solved this political dilemma in a very direct way: I don't vote. On Election Day, I stay home. I firmly believe that if you vote, you have no right to complain. Now, some people like to twist that around. They say, "If you don't vote, you have no right to complain", but where's the logic in that? If you vote, and you elect dishonest, incompetent politicians, and they get into office and screw everything up, you are responsible for what they have done. You voted them in. You caused the problem. You have no right to complain.

I, on the other hand, who did not vote -- who did not even leave the house on Election Day -- am in no way responsible for that these politicians have done and have every right to complain about the mess that you created."
-George Carlin

Sorry for the wall of text, at least I used paragraphs.

That other board I mentioned - wow. I just want to say that I love and appreciate the fact that even though this board was born of hate (or at least shared in it) I'm glad we're not acting like fucking pigs toward each other. And that's what this other board is doing - talking to each other about 'those black and mixed race people' and how 'they feel sorry for America for being so stupid'.

Although someone did send me this on aim and I laughed my ass off. =x



Oh come on, that was just funny.

That is an awesome quote!