What are your thoughts on people who didn't vote?
What are your thoughts on people who didn't vote?
133 comments
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- They don't get to complain because they refused to do the bare minimum.
- Contribute to the many reasons I had to leave my home country. Not sure it would be different otherwise, but going immigrant without a fallback plan wasn't pleasant.
- Mandatory voting - I'm for it as long as it's Australian style - no severe punishment, just light fines. Enough to quietly annoy people into voting.
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How is it better if someone just goes and circles a random name on the list because its mandatory? If someone doesn't follow politics and isn't educated enough to pick a good candidate, or motivated enough to research them, I think it's better to not vote at all than to give it up to either chance or a superficial gut feeling based on constant propaganda barrage. A person that votes like that just makes your vote less impactful, statistically speaking.
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Because they won't do it randomly. Being forced to participate will make people think: "If I have to do it I might as well choose X". If you ever participated in a mandatory school activity you might know the feeling. You might not have chosen to do it of your own free will, but now that you're there let's think what to make of it.
Also politics is not just voting. Politics is almost every choice you make every day. If I have to drag someone kicking and screaming until they understand it so be it.
Also also, voting randomly is not useless. Keeping the political system functional is preferable to forever pining for a perfect candidate. A "perfect glorious leader" doesn't exist, random votes make those emotionally swayed by charismatic leaders less likely to gain a majority.
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How is it better if someone just goes and circles a random name on the list because its mandatory?
Statistically, if a large population being "forced" to vote were voting names randomly on ballots that had their own order randomly assigned, then their votes would be evenly distributed and not end up affecting the results.
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As an Australian I do have a bit of a problem with mandatory voting. Mostly because it forces the uninformed to go vote too, so we get the same breed of fearmongering and sensationalist headlines on the newspaper front pages that are all owned by the same billionaires and the same idiots on social security voting for the party that would abolish social security because Facebook told them the other party wanted to let muslims rape their girlfriend.
But the voting on the weekend and the democracy sausage we definitely got right.
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They suck, but not nearly as much as the people that voted for Trump that are now claiming ignorance of his policies and regret their vote.
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Reminds of the pro-brexit voters when they truly understood what they voted for
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Make them take the "Walk of Shame" like in the GoT.
No fines. Just make it even easier and better process. Mail in ballots and a federal holiday for the Presidential election.
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Decisions are made by those that show up. If you didn’t vote, you don’t get to bitch when the results aren’t what you wanted.
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Hard not to bitch when, as a citizen of another country, I could never vote, and yet people here still have to deal with the consequences.
You better believe the rest of the world will be bitching.
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yes, I do
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And we will all laugh at you for that hot take. Next time get off your ass and participate if you have an opinion.
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Oh you do, but you lost the right to be taken seriously by anyone that did. And it’s no big surprise how so many of you that were shouting at everyone before the election have either vanished, or fallen silent about it since.
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Fine, but we'll take you less seriously.
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Backwards.
You put american electoralism up on a pedestal and tout its sanctity and your faith in the process. The process yielded Trump. If you truly believe in the sanctity of american electoralism, you now have no grounds to complain.
If you vote, you don't get to complain.
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Buy a helmet. Wear it.
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ROFL! Holy shit…. That is funny!
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They should shut up about politics. Not voting is literally a declaration that you don't care who governs you. Voting is what gives you the right to complain about the government. If you didn't vote, shut up.
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Not voting is literally a declaration that you don't care who governs you
no, it's not
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They should shut up about politics
Not participating in fake, anti-democratic spectacles (somehow) "disqualifies" one from talking about politics?
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This is just ignorance and whiny entitlement. Your "fake anti-democratic spectacle" is the hard-won achievement of generations of people who came before you. Boring liberal representative democracy is the exception in world history. Most people in the world have never had the opportunity that you have to influence your government. Not good enough for you? Well then get off your ass and do something to make it better. The very least you can do is vote, because out of two candidates, one is always better than another. If you can't be bothered to do even that, then I for one don't care what you have to say about politics.
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Elections might be skewed, they might be giving voters a rather narrow choice, they might depend on who's got the bigger campaign fund, they might not offer ranked choice, yet with all that --they're still one of the most accessible, actionable things the average person can do to control their nation's future. Passing on that is not justifiable, because we should be doing everything we can, and that includes voting. I used to be cynical like you, but
then I took an arrI mean, we can't afford that.
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Better than voting for who looks the best on TV, or any of the other ways people vote without being fully informed. I'm sometimes forced to leave sections blanks because I cannot find anything about the candidates (I don't know why my state vote on judges, the only way to find out if they any are good is to spend 100% of your time in court rooms, reading decisions, and so on all year)
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They’re definitely part of the reason why we are where we are. Not the only reason, but definitely a big part of it.
Additionally, I’ll say that their refusal to vote isn’t the protest they think it is. All it did was tell the powers that be that they trust everyone else to choose for them and that they’re fine with whoever wins.
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As an anarchist, I respect their decision in the sense that participating in the state is fighting for the state.
I would tell them to vote though, and I myself vote when its needed, to avoid getting utter bastards as 'legitimate' leaders. Here in France it's even easier because I'm not given the choice between only capitalists and fascists, i can vote for light versions of socialists.
I'm against fines, even light ones. If they are not strictly scaled to income, they always strike harder people who are struggling already than richer ones. And even if they do, it's not fair to be forced to participate in a form of politics you don't want.
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Thank you. Sadly, the concept of legitimizing a government isn't something most people understand enough to appreciate.
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I'm largely disappointed in them. The one time they were needed the most, they didn't care to show up. Like, you do not have to be knee deep in politics to understand what's at stake and who's running. Take a good solid 30 minutes out of your life, to research and study the candidates, the issues and think of the future of the country's direction if either candidate and their party got voted in.
If they'd do just that, they'd probably have a better understanding. But they didn't do that. They thought the 2024 election was in the bag and feel they didn't need to do their part. Well, the results speak for themselves.
And nothing much more needs to be said or done, they've sentenced themselves to the mess that's to happen a week and a half from now. Just as much as all of the brainwashed and braindead conservatives who actively voted for fascism.
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The one timethey were needed the most, they didn’t care to show up.
Are you saying the 2020 presidential election wasn't the most important one ever? Because that's not what everyone was saying.
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If they wanted a certain outcome but didn't do jacks shit, with almost no exceptions as to why they didn't vote, and complain about it, they are getting absolutely zero, zilch, notta, nothing in the sympathy department from me.
If you got the ability to vote, even if it's for something as minor as what's for dinner, and you don't vote, don't complain because you didn't do anything.
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Should I have thoughts on them?
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They're no worse than (possibly better than) people who voted for whichever party because their parents/newspaper taught/told them to, or because that's who they always vote for and are too lazy, stubborn, peer pressured or insecure to change - i.e. people who claim to be politically literate but don't actually have a clue what they're really voting for.
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Perhaps they would feel more inclined to vote if we had more then two viable political parties to choose from.
With a more representative electoral system, people would be free to vote outside the two party system with no spoiler effect. Their vote would count, even if their preference didn’t win.
Who could possibly be against democracy? Republicans? Of course.
How about the democratic party? What is their opinion of democracy? Will they work to ensure their constituents are represented fully? Every day that ticks by without electoral reform in blue states is another day the democrats elevate their party above the needs of the country.
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There was a choice. You failed to choose the better option, and thus must accept the worst.
Simple-as.
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The majority of non-voters I've met irl are conservatives, so I'm happy they didn’t vote
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They actively brought about political disaster through idiotic, self-absorbed assholery and they will be licking it up for four long fucking years.
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They actively brought about political disaster
You want to blame the people who didn't participate in anti-democratic spectacles for the existence of said anti-democratic spectacles?
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They can live with Brexit.
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I don't care. Popular vote doesn't get presidents elected, and nobody local ever seems both interested and capable of making significant positive changes, at least that I've seen. It largely feels like theater, and in a race you can't influence between two people pledging to continue genocide I can see why people would throw their hands up and say fuck everything.
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Sure, but local offices have a much larger effect on most people's lives and that's where voting can make a change.
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They don’t care who leads them and are happy to go along with whatever circumstances or rules are presented to them.
Any problems with those circumstances or rules are their fault.
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Lazy idiots, misguided idiots, deluded idiots who have made every progressive goal more difficult to achieve, just out of reach for the rest of our lives
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and what if government tomorrow or (maybe far future) announced that they will be announcing fines for people who didn't vote in order to maximize participation, would you agree with that decision?
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You mean, as already happens in Australia and Belgium and maybe a few other places.
Seems fair to me. Democracy relies on participation. To not vote is effectively to vote against democracy. Fair enough, but that's a dangerous road to go down. I think there should be a small price to pay for it.
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This is the dumb way to go about incentivizing people to vote.
Make voting part of doing your taxes. Everyone is already verified through the IRS, piggyback off that system. Whatever amount you had in your head as a fine, make it a tax credit if they compete the voting portion of the tax paperwork.
People who don't do taxes can vote by mail still and can still receive the money for voting. No more stupid fucking voting booths.
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People who don’t vote don’t get to complain if things don’t go their way. I mean they can, but it’s pretty silly. It’s like writing a review for a restaurant that your friends have eaten at, but that you haven’t. No one should take that review seriously.
I think voting should be mandatory for people who have registered to vote. I don’t think anyone should be required to register, but if you are registered you should have to vote or be fined, imo.
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Vote in what?
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I'm not sure about what election you're referring to. If you mean in the recent US presidential election, most of them weren't in a position to realistically affect the outcome anyway; they'd need to be in a swing state, a state that wasn't already very probably going to go one way or the other.
That being said, if they didn't vote for the President, they probably also didn't vote for other things on the ballot that probably affect them as well. It's not just about electing the President.
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I've been taught people vote on their opinions, opinions form based on how the politicians resonate with them, and that in turn happens due to how good or bad they are.
Last year yielded only the most questionable choices for the presidency in the US. Is it any wonder some people didn't vote? Any politician that judges non-voters only hints at the kind of aura that may have caused them to lose in the first place.
If I don't vote, I'll get judged. If I vote third party, I'll get judged. If I vote for the person we're taught to hate, I'll get judged. What does everyone want? Non-democracy?
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I'm not going to get on their case. I think that's okay if they genuinely don't care or don't know what's good for them.
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I don’t care, not like our elections actually mean anything, we get Putin anyway.
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I hope they die in a fire after watching Trump face rape their children
Let me guess... you support gun control. Your comment is just more proof that the working class must never disarm no matter the pretext.
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Everyone get's what they asked for. The thing about the ubiquitous trolley problem is it has clear outcomes. That's why it works. Whatever's happening down the track, here we are. We had a lever we didn't pull. Best learn to live with the choice, because there was a choice.
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Not true at an individual level. Where I live, no way of voting or not voting would have mattered. The same was true where I used to live years ago. In many places it's clear my vote doesn't matter every single time and the outcome would not have changed in most of the election categories.
Therefore I do not actually have choice.
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Did you make an effort? Yes/no.
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Sure, and same. Some of us in the US did get the luxury of protest vote. How'd you do in local? I'm not even a democrat. First time I voted down ticket.
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Quiet contempt, mostly. Their arguments for doing so, while passionate, simply don’t hold up under scrutiny. However, trying to talk to them about it just strengthens their resolve, so I don’t bother.
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simply don’t hold up under scrutiny.
And your arguments FOR participating? Will they hold up under scrutiny?
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lmfao, YES. I can't tell if you're being intentionally myopic. For the first time in a long time we know how this is going to go. There has never been a more clear A:B case in this field. This wasn't 2016. Dead bodies in congress and I don't remember worrying about if my friends who are serving were going to call me from godamn greenland before Nov. Buckle up. You won. Reap the rewards.
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They probably couldn't afford to miss a day to work, and they know from experience that neither party is going to do anything to change that.
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I don't personally care if someone voted or not, especially this election.
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I shake my head at ballots cast for elephants
I shake my head at ballots cast for donkeys
cuz I swear to God our leaders
they will be the death of us
there is no vote we can cast to set us free
vote November second if it seems right to you
don't vote if you think it just holds us down
but tell me what we're gonna do on November third
to make sure there's no government left to elect two years from now
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The generals still went the right way, but I'm quite frustrated by them not being as mobilized for regionals and locals as a way to signal disatisfaction on something they perceived to matter less. It has lots of practical effects that shouldn't be ignored for the sake of performative anger.
Wait, which election were you asking about again?
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Good for them. The less people who vote, the easier it is to claim correctly that the supposed rulers are illegitimate.
133 comments
Rule 6. Locking.
Edit: Unlocking based on argument that this post is general rather than about the recent US election (OP to edit title). Edit 2: OP has chosen not to edit title. Locking.