I mean barring undue hardship in a given election or in the midst of moving real life reasons. Barring those why the hell don't people vote?

I have tried to vote in every election since I was 18 and I have damn near hit most all of them?

It was never a big deal. Occasional line, occasional rain or cold but never any big deal. Hell most of the time I have had great conversations in the line with folks.

So why don't folks get off their duffs and vote???

This isn't calling out anybody specifically or anybody here its just that it boggles my mind when I see 30% turnout or 40% turnout etc.

Just a thought that bubbled up as of late.

Take care, Vote Safe
Chris

1. They're lazy. They just don't see the need to put out the effort.

2. They go along with the "my one vote doesn't really matter" philosophy. I love my "adopted sister" to death, and I know each of us would fight like hell for the other. But she irks the snot out of me when I can't get her to stop at the firehouse (her polling place), literally on her path home and take five minutes to cast a vote. Her stance: "It's just one vote...."

3. They've gotten complacent. For a lot of us, life's not terribly bad, and things that are on politicians' hot lists aren't on the average voter's list of concerns.

Lazy and apathetic.

JESUS I'M LAZY!! I can drag my ass out to pull a lever once every couple years. Sigh.

I'm 51 years old. Have only missed one primary, ended out of town last minute and no way to absentee ballot. I believe that it's my duty to vote. Even if it voting against some asshole, lesser of two evils.

Not to make excuses, but I know someone that is my age, and basically my same political beliefs that has rarely voted. Why? She says that her voice doesn't count, that even when the guy is "your guy" that at the first opportunity they will stab you in the back and not do what is right and what you voted them in for.

So, some people just think that it's a waste of time because the politicians are in it for themselves and will fuck over the people that put them there at the first opportunity, especially if it enriches themselves.

ARman

Many local elections are poorly communicated, by design.

As for national ones, some are lazy, some don't see the point of voting for douchbag A vs douchebag B, the lesser of two evils is still evil.. The my vote doesn't count belief, etc.

Then you get cases like McCain who decided to just not waste his time running in Michigan because he felt it was a lost cause, so why would I go vote for him knowing even he says my vote is worthless...

Apathy.

Lots of reasons

A lot of anarchist or even libertarian leaning folks think the entire system is rotten to the core and voting just legitimizes the evil and corrupt system.

There are the two I here a lot.

Its only one vote. Its not going to matter.

I dont like either candidate.

quote:

Originally posted by Lord Vaalic:
Many local elections are poorly communicated, by design.

^^ THIS ^^

Around me, they seem to hold important local elections (eg Mayor) and bond measures at odd times such as March, May, or September even in odd numbered years when it could easily be simultaneous with national elections. On top of that, local fish wrapper does a shit job of publishing election info.

For example, we recently had 5 state constitution amendments on ballot and 2 local bond measures (including one bullshit one for astroturf at sports fields. Fortunately it failed by a large margin). I had to go to multiple websites and spend a couple hours figuring out what would be on my actual ballot and then researching how I want to vote. The

I used to think my vote did not really matter. Then we had Bush vs. Gore. A presidential election decided by less than 600 votes. From my home state.

A few years later in Florida, we had Christ vs. Scott for governor. The final separation became larger, but after the polls closed at 9pm, over a million votes had been counted and they were separated by something like 100 votes.

Bush vs. Gore made me realize my vote is very important. Christ vs. Scott re-inforced it.

Some refuse to choose between a giant douche and a turd sandwich.

Carlin said it best:

I do vote, but I can understand someone deciding they're all liars and thieves. Because well... Still, I vote for my favorite flavor of liar and thief and hope he does some of the things that protect us from the socialists.

So there's that. Then there are many many many people that pay no attention to any of this. I'm pretty happy they don't vote. And they're probably pretty happy, because well... They pay no attention to any of this!

Disillusioned & poor choices

For a time I didn't vote. At the time I had a few reasons not to:
1. I felt it was important to be an informed voter and didn't trust campaign ads or the media to be truthful.
2. I felt my vote didn't count in the grand scheme.
3. Politics meant little to me.

I vote now and still feel:
1. It's important to be informed and campaign ads and the media lie.
2. As the position/issue rises/increases, my vote is less meaningful.
3. Politics are an unfortunate evil of power seekers.

Now, I could get deeper into this, but I have no desire to bicker with someone over opinions and I am unlikly to be swayed too far from what I perceive as reality.

I have expressed before that in my opinion one should vote for the best regardless of party. So, at times, it does become a matter of holding one's nose and reaching into the sewers.

To me politicians should get back to actually representing their constituents and returning home to make their living. They were supposed to be compensated not bankrolled and turned into lifelong elected officials. The changes that need to be made in my opinion would limit terms or perhaps the consecutive number of terms one could hold (that should and was intended originally to be SERVE). I realize one and out isn't the answer, but after 2 or 3 terms, give something else a chance.

Yep, I am a simpleton when it comes to polatickin'.

quote:

Originally posted by holdem:
I used to think my vote did not really matter. Then we had Bush vs. Gore. A presidential election decided by less than 600 votes. From my home state.

A few years later in Florida, we had Christ vs. Scott for governor. The final separation became larger, but after the polls closed at 9pm, over a million votes had been counted and they were separated by something like 100 votes.

Bush vs. Gore made me realize my vote is very important. Christ vs. Scott re-inforced it.

Another data point is the 2014 Alaska governor race.

Two key Alaska facts:

Alaska’s economy’s direct and indirect economic impact from oil & gas is over 80% of the state’s economy.

Alaska has a separate primary for governor and lieutenant governor (very important point in a minute)

The incumbent was a Republican and former partner in a law firm who worked for oil & gas companies and was very knowledgeable about the industry. Through a lot of underhanded bullshit the independent and demonrat combined their ticket with the independent as governor and demonrat as the lt gov (ie they threw out the two men that won the lt governor independent and demonrat primary). Their governor candidate was a partner in a law firm who sued oil companies for a living, was mayor of a town of 4000 people, and didn’t know jack shit about oil & gas. Meanwhile, on the Republican ticket the lt governor who won the primary is the former Anchorage mayor who tried to break up government employee unions so normally conservative voting blocks such as police and fire refused to vote Republican due to the lt gov on the ticket.

The Demonrat won by 4,634 votes and as expected the regulatory and tax environment was slightly friendlier than Venezuela so International oil & gas companies spent their money in friendlier locations. Both the economy and housing prices went down the shitter in his 4 years. He even implemented social justice nonsense and crime went through the roof as a result. He was so unpopular by the end he didn’t even seek re-election.

---

Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity

DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.

People are too lazy to vote in primaries, or aren't registered to a party. Then the party faithful and hard core ideologs, who tend to vote in primaries) pick candidates the majority (who don't vote in primaries) don't like. So when it gets to the general election, there are a large number of voters who don't like their choices.

Fucking Democrats claw fheir way out of coffins six feet under and lurch to the polling places to vote.

Or mail in their absentee ballots from the maildrop on the corner near the cemetary.

quote:

Originally posted by cslinger:
JESUS I'M LAZY!! I can drag my ass out to pull a lever once every couple years. Sigh.

Drag out to the polls, you're kidding right? All they have to do is request an absentee ballet be mailed to them, fill it out at their leisure, and mail it back. But these people don't have the motivation to even do that! Lazy, ignorant, and complacent is no way to go through life.

quote:

Originally posted by CQB60:
Disillusioned & poor choices

Nah, the youth today are so stupid and uniformed to even grasp what a good choice would be. They've been indoctrinated into behaving a certain way, but they most assuredly do not 'think' about anything.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: bigdeal,

One person doesn't make a difference. Everyone has to be in. If you don't think others are motivated, you won't be motivated either, because by yourself you're not enough.

Messaging and enthusiasm is paramount.

I vote every election and when our kids were young I took them with me or with the wife to stand in line and vote.