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Posted on 11/08/2011 5:30:57 AM PST by wolfman23601
Conventional wisdom is that if you don't vote, you can't complain. I have come to the conclusion that I disagree. By vote voting, you are in fact voting for none of the above. In the Virginia House, my race is between a liberal democrat and an establishment GOP puppet who has no accomplishments of his own and has never stood on his own two feet. The incumbant retired and the new candidate is a handoff ripe for more graft. In the Virginia senate, it is a liberal democrat against a restaurant owner that wants more toll roads. I simply can't vote for any of these people. Would it send a better message to cast a blank ballot or sit it out completely?
I don't even know where to start!!
Correct. Some of us are more concerned with Judgement Day than Election Day...those people should not be mocked.
But they will be. :-)
Cast a vote and include a write-in instead of either of the candidates; see if you can convince friends, family and neighbors to write in the same name.
It is strictly a local election here, which frankly are the ones I am most interested in. These clowns at the national level are so hard to influence, but in low-turnout elections (which always happens in off-year elections), my vote counts for a lot in my local election.
City council at least has some choices. BofEd has 9 spots open for 9 candidates. Hmm. “In Soviet Connecticut, Board of Ed chooses YOU.”
Amen.
Yes, McDonnell is a conservative. I swear some of you people would have whined and moaned about Reagan - who was far from a perfect conservative during his time as governor of California (and as President). Is McDonnell right on all the issues? Of course not, but overall he is a solid conservative socially and right of center on economic issues.
This Virginia election is even more important because redistricting is on the line. With the Democrats holding the Senate we can not pass the Republican version of the redistricting plan. Flipping the state senate is of critical importance.
If you can't be bothered to vote in state elections as critical as this because none of the candidates are pure enough for you, you should just keep your mouth shut and stop complaining.
I would go with a write-in of “none of the above”. It sends more of a message than not voting. Silence is consent.
“Unless a race is decided by one vote, your vote is meaningless anyway. I’ve never cast a meaningful vote. I could have stayed home every single time and nothing would be different.”
This is the open secret that everyone pretends isn’t true. We have a good reason, as voter collectives actually do matter. So convention has it “every vote matters,” “don’t throw your vote away,” “can’t complain if you don’t vote,” “it’s your democratic duty,” and blah, blah, blah. All of it is lies.
Unless the election is decided by a one vote margin, you don’t matter. Not voting cannot rob you of a right to complain, because something that doesn’t matter cannot matter. Just because there are other people like you, and adding up your and their votes would make a difference, does not make your vote matter. Marking a throwaway vote on the ballot does not matter, either, because no one cares.
“You COULD influence the outcome if you go to the polls and try to convince people to viote for the same write in candidate”
That’s not legal, is it?
Write in.
“It would only have been a footnote but you would have exercised a civic duty.”
Voting is not a duty.
“It is the. RESPONSAIBILITY of every citizen over 18 to cast their vote”
No it isn’t. Where do people get this from?
I pay for all the roads and I don’t use 99.99% of them. I don’t use any of the roads North of Fredericksburg and Micky D doesn’t want tolls on any of those. If you want to scrap the gas tax, personal property tax, and all the DMV fees and replace them with a milage tax or tolls on ALL roads, I could perhaps warm to the idea, but the way it is being carried out is double taxation. The roads around here haven’t even been maintained since Mark Warner left office. I would have thought that Micky D being from Virginia Beach would have helped matters here in Hampton Roads, but the Northern Virginia bias continues. Some shill from Loudon County proposed last year to put tolls on all our existing tunnels to pay for roads that he needed in Northern Virginia and local republicans had the gall to agree with him. Hence, my reservations on the Republican Party of Virginia
George Allen posted the following on his face book pages about an hour ago:
Election Day is here and all our exhaustive hours of phone calls, door knocking and get out the vote efforts will finally be put to the test! Republicans have a tremendous opportunity today to put Virginia on a course that leads to prosperity and economic growth for many years to come. Remember that every vote counts and we need to get all of our like-minded friends, family members and neighbors to the polls today to make sure our candidates come out on top! I just voted at my local precinct. “Like” this post and share it with your friends if you already voted this morning too.
Clown statement!
America is repairable now, it won’t if he’s re-elected.
Yeah - your vote matters - and not voting - doesn't.
“’Sitting it out completely’ could be interpreted as being happy with the status quo”
What is all this discussion about your vote’s message? No one ever sends a message, no matter what they do. You might as well tell them their vote will decide who wins. They can, along with a mass of fellow voters. Just like they can influence the Man if loads of fellows write in None of the Above. But we’re not talking about that, are we? If one vote can’t decide an election—and it can’t—one vote cannot send a message.
Nobody will care if you vote for A or B, throw a curve ball and go C, write in None of the Above, or not at all. Nobody cares.
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