One drawback to every election ever

[ginny_t]

I don't know why, but the "go vote!" exhortations on election day really get under my skin. Don't get me wrong: I dragged my sorry, whiny, feverish ass outta my sickbed to go vote (whyohwhy didn't I use the advance polls?), and I even think that voting should be mandatory (a co-worder disagrees but proposed some sort of bonus [like a tax break or

Comments

[sabotabby]

Sorry, just made one.

...it's my job on the line, potentially, so I am on edge about it.

[ginny_t]

It's mine, potentially, too. (We know which MPP wants to shut Dream Dept.™ down and contract us out.) And the thing is, okay, the people who read you are going to vote a certain way, but you can't control how people vote, so you might not like the result.

Either way, this is really just my pushback against those types of posts. (Last US election, I got into rather a slapfight on DW when I asked people to at least remember that not everyone gets to vote in their elections. That one was weird.)

[yadoking]

Hahaha, I kind of think all these "Go vote!" posts are exciting, a little heartening even.

But maybe that's just me being homesick. Voting by mail from America two weeks ago just isn't the same. :(

[ginny_t]

Like I said, I'm pro-vote, going so far as to think it should be mandatory or you at least have to STFU if you don't

[yadoking]

Oh man!. I'm all too familiar with that why-is-everything-in-slow-motion-I-just-want-to-be-in-bed feeling.

Hope you've had a restful day since then!

[ice_rose]

If I could vote I would, but not being a Canadian citizen yet I'm not allowed to vote in any elections. While this makes sense for federal elections, I can't understand how it makes any sense for provincial or municipal elections.

Am I still allowed to complain? ;)

[zingerella]

I grant complaining rights to everyone who lives here and is barred by stupid laws from voting in elections. It's one thing to not participate in a process in which you are able to participate and then complain about how everyone else voted, it's quite another to be stuck with other people's stupid results when you were barred from any say in the results.

[ginny_t]

Stupid LJ wouldn't let me reply last night.

You do indeed get to complain, as you're stuck with the choices we make.

Now, about this "not a citizen yet"… we finally got Stuart. Come to the Canadian side, we have poutine.

[zingerella]

There are some days when I wish the kind of vote-splitting I think of whenever I hear "vote-splitting" could really happen. Like, on my ballot, I could somehow denote that I want Candidate X and Candidate Y to share my vote: Candidate X can have it for anything related to issues A, B, and C, and Candidate Y can have it for anything related to issues Q, and P. For any other issues, the two candidates must cut a deck of professionally shuffled cards to determin who may represent me.

[ginny_t]

This is quite the new take on electoral reform. Since we couldn't even get people to understand MMP, I don't like your chances of getting this through. ^_~

[zingerella]

Oh, I don't think it would be a sensible system at all! And the administration would be nigh-impossible.

[pmonkeyfun]

I agree about being annoyed by people who send out emphatic 'go vote' messages, though I think it's for slightly different reasons.

A lot of people seem to think that voting is the ultimate manifestation of our democratic rights, where I'm inclined to think of it as one of many (and sometimes one of the least meaningful). Yeah, go vote; but also go get informed about issues, go talk about important issues with others, go get involved in issues and causes that are important. My pet peeve is not people who don't vote and then complain about things, but people who 'only' vote and then complain about things as if they've done everything they can to make a difference. I've known conscientious abstainers who are incredibly active in the democratic system, and consistent voters who are relatively uninformed and just whine between elections.