I think that people who vote in all or most elections tend to be the best informed. And that's a good thing. After watching a fare number of "on the street" interviews of college aged young adults, I'm encouraged they don't vote. It's ridiculous that many don't know how many states we have, or who the VP is or are able to name one SCOTUS justice or who won the civil war. Yet if they vote, it counts the same as the most informed citizen's. I realize a lot of these interviews are manipulated to some extent to present the most inept for entertainment value yet there they are. These people need to stay at home.

Many are stupid like my SIL. I support her not voting. Hell, I support her with my taxes anyway.

I do vote, every damn time. Its too ofter, too. There is a scam going in some places where they intentionally place the vote at odd times. Those are the most important because they have a captive electorate, like the teachers unions, that wish to vote themselves more tax money. In places where there are a majority of renters, the voters don't pay the taxes, the owners do.

We have a problem in our election system where we have people voting that don't have a direct economic interest in the outcome. It cuts both ways, where if you work in a place but don't live there, you can't vote. So it tilts the scales to allow the residents to vote for you to pay more taxes. They get the benefit but not the burden.

Family members discussing voting a few years ago.
One ask the other if she voted, she replied no, I didn't know who to vote for. Did you vote? Yes I voted for xxxxxx, because he was the only one I had heard of.

Yes people need to get out and vote (besides Presidential elections) One of the reasons Democrats took the House. No? And we see the resulting shit show of today.
People who voted for President Trump could have voted for Republicans to keep the House. And no impeachment show we all had to witness.
Now we’ll see who votes who in Nov won’t we?

I don't think I've missed a general election since I was old enough to vote and I am 79 now. I have two kids, one is fifty and the other fifty five. To my knowledge, neither has ever voted?
I wish this wasn't the case, but it is. If you even question them, they get pissed off.

Disturbing trend for sure. Never missed an election and don’t think any of my family have ever missed one. There is no reason not to vote...you can’t be too busy etc.

I'm excited to vote in Virginia, I've never voted in person before. Washington is all mail in ballots, easier to manipulate that way.

I too vote in every election. My city has me slated for, and sent an absentee ballot for all elections, just on the off chance that I can not make the physical vote.

I vote every election. I’m glad others do not because, like others have said, they don’t pay attention to anything and will just vote randomly or read one headline for one candidate and vote for them. I think if 100% of the population was to vote we would probably not ever have another republican president because 70% or more of the population is lazy and would read “Sanders wants to offer free College degrees to everyone” in a headline and vote for him or someone like him.

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Originally posted by bubbatime:
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.

This is true.
I know some of them. They cannot be convinced that if they do not vote they essentially support the GDCs and their own surrender of the freedoms they enjoy.

I have a friend who is totally ignorant of politics or the goings on in the USA or the world. He is slightly right of center. Doesn’t like to talk about politics and has never voted. He literally could not care less. We only see each other maybe two or three times a year. As I’ve gotten older I have less and less tolerance for people like that.

I have heard people say they dont or wont vote because they do not like any of the candidates.
Any of them. And I see that as a threat to our political system. No qualified candidates that people can put their faith in.

No way I won't vote!!

I did not vote once. I go exactly the government I deserved. Nixon, Watergate, resignation, and an unelected President.
Cured me forever.

Funny now that you mention it I do know a guy who thinks it’s all corrupt and won’t vote. I don’t disagree completely but would rather the corrupt asshole I more closely align with gets in vs the other heathen.

I've missed only one Presidential election since 1972. 1988, I was going to vote on the way home from work but my pager went off, spent several hours on a fire, this was during my paid-on-call days.

And to those who say "My vote does not count", there was another proposal on this ballot that got soundly trounced, this one was a bit closer, it lost by 28 votes.https://www.livingstondaily.com/story/news/local/2018/11/07/voters-reject-howell-headlee-override-village-pinckey-millage/1891670002/

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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?

When you are young everything in life is more important.

The older we get the importance level increases.
As we get older we get wiser and for many more conservative.

That accounts for a lot of young not voting and more as you get older.

Now days with all the media coverage and intensified polarization of sides that may change some.

If you ever watch any of the man-on-the-street interviews you see how clueless many are - mostly the younger crowd.

We can blame them for the ignorance but I can't blame them so much for the lack of importance - I know when I was young it didn't consume me everyday like it does today.

I vote every election. Locally it can really count.

As to speaking to friends, right leaning only, I point out two things -

1 - the worst Republican has to be better than the opposition. No vote on your part is in essence allowing one more democrat to get a left leaning vote.

2 - If you don’t vote, you give up your voice for the next four years. I NEVER WANT TO HEAR YOU BITCHING ABOUT ANYTHING POLITICAL. You had your chance. You let someone else (who graduated in the lower half of their class) to decide for you.

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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.

This is true in Michigan as well. The city of Grand Rapids, as an example, wanted to add a superfluous bus line to one of the main arteries of our city, that already has a fully operational bus line. The new and improved overlapping bus line however, would have a dedicated lane on this artery during certain hours, and would need all new buses and new stops with some kind of green technology-induced benches.

The good residents of the city voted it down TWICE, before the rats at city hall added it to a ballot that was voted on in one of the off-off-primary voting days, because they had calculated that only the douche-bags that see it as their job to grow rules/government/entitlements would get out and vote on that day.

And what do you know? We now own a second bus line that runs along a route that already had enough busing that the buses usually only have 1 or 2 people on them.

It's underhanded.

I always vote. So far at least.

I also think most of them are largely worthless creatures barely due even the most basic respect.

And, I double-plus-despise the very notion of career politicians. If ever there was a reason to simply distrust someone completely without ever even having met them, the desire to be a career politician is one such reason. They're almost "dead to me" just for running again more than a couple of times.

Do your service to country, do it well, and go the fuck back home in few years.

Ruling Classes of any sort are forever unacceptable.