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Vote.org is a non-profit that wants to get the U.S. to 100% voter turnout

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Re: Vote.org is a non-profit that wants to get the U.S. to 100% voter turnout

#411

Post by dp107 »

baron816 wrote: post #156

The biggest reason people in the US don't vote is because they don't have enough options so they never get to choose people they really care about. Plus, no individual vote matters. This all has to do with our winner-take-all elections. Countries with proportional representation have much higher voter turnout rates (often in the 80-90% range). That's because you get to vote for the person or party you want, and they'…

This is entirely true. PR is the reason democratic movements in countries like Spain and Greece are able to achieve power -- because positive feedback loops manifest between activism and electoral politics -- in ways that simply can't happen here.

Re: Vote.org is a non-profit that wants to get the U.S. to 100% voter turnout

#413

Post by nommm-nommm »

igorgue wrote: post #145
nommm-nommm wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would making election day a federal holiday increase voter turnout among anyone not working for the federal government. Plenty of federal holidays are working days for my company.

And plenty aren't... Many companies actually respect that every single company I worked at in the 10 years I've lived in America respected Christmas and New Year Day for example. I don't get your point, your situation is not the same as everyone else.

I'd actually be surprised if you worked for a private company and got every single federal holiday off. In 2016 they are:

Friday, January 1: New Year’s Day

Monday, January 18: Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Monday, February 15: Washington’s Birthday (aka Presidents Day)

Monday, May 30: Memorial Day

Monday, July 4: Independence Day (aka Fourth of July)

Monday, September 5: Labor Day

Monday, October 10: Columbus Day

Friday, November 11: Veterans Day

Thursday, November 24: Thanksgiving Day

Monday, December 26: Christmas Day*

Even growing up I had (public) school on Columbus Day.

Service workers work on almost all of them. Even the once sacred Thanksgiving isn't a day off for many retail employees anymore. Where I worked year ago they brought in low paid part time workers on holidays to cover for the full timers (who had benefits) who had the day off.

Re: Vote.org is a non-profit that wants to get the U.S. to 100% voter turnout

#414

Post by facetube »

Thrymr wrote: post #287
beambot wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Abstaining is a form of voting, regardless of whether you consider it "some BS idea."

A representative present for a roll call and explicitly abstaining is a form of voting. A citizen staying home on election day is indistinguishable from apathy.

Would submitting a signed but completely blank absentee ballot be somehow more acceptable to you?

Re: Vote.org is a non-profit that wants to get the U.S. to 100% voter turnout

#415

Post by LionessLover »

danenania wrote: post #307
Apofis wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely, honestly, I would turn out to vote for Bernie Sanders, but that is seeming to be less likely as time progresses. So, I won't be voting at all, since I could care less if either Clinton or Trump get elected. Clinton gets elected and the status quo doesn't change very much, Trump gets elected, and maybe---just maybe some people will begin to sit up and take action.

In the case of Trump getting elected, you're assuming that we'd still have anything that resembles a democracy four years later and that the people who'd supposedly be ready to take action wouldn't be thrown in jail or disappeared or suppressed via collective violence. Resigning oneself to naked fascism with the idea that it could somehow lead to more progress down the line is quite the gamble. Perhaps it could work…

Wow, you would make a great fiction author!

Re: Vote.org is a non-profit that wants to get the U.S. to 100% voter turnout

#416

Post by LionessLover »

vacri wrote: post #406
LionessLover wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I vote that your opinion is not one iota more valuable than that of any non-voter. People like you really should be forced to look into a mirror an hour each day.

How are you going to force Thrymyr to look in the mirror for an hour per day, if you can't even get someone out to vote? Who would be motivated enough to apply that penalty?

I vote that your opinion is not one iota more valuable than that of any non-voter. People like you really should be forced to look into a mirror an hour each day.

Re: Vote.org is a non-profit that wants to get the U.S. to 100% voter turnout

#417

Post by LionessLover »

hueving wrote: post #195
danieltillett wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stop voting for someone and start voting against someone. Pick the least worst candidate and give them your vote.

It's sort of the train switch moral question. If you hate them both but hate one slight more, voting for the lesser hated one makes you morally responsible for the shit they cause in some peoples' view (as opposed to being a bystander).

> It's sort of the train switch moral question.

No it's not. You are stupid.

Re: Vote.org is a non-profit that wants to get the U.S. to 100% voter turnout

#418

Post by labster »

harryh wrote: post #329
dragonwriter wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Requiring you to show up at a particular place and put a pair in a box, with the option to actually mark something on it (Australian style mandatory voting) hardly violates freedom of speech.

Refusal to participate in the political process very clearly looks like speech to me. And a very important kind of speech. A great many people think "They're all bums. I'm not voting for any of them!" You can find some of these people in threads on this post! Who are we to tell them otherwise? I also don't think that the "you're allowed to show up and not check a box, but you've still gotta show up" argument passes m…

Subpoenas to testify in court are coercions of speech. As are requirements to disclose financial information for tax returns. And the obligatory "yelling fire" example. You are coerced to tell a draft board about your suitability for combat. Protesters are frequently to coerced to limit their speech with armed force.

You can be an absolutist if you like but in the real world the U.S. First Amendment has had limits since the beginning. Which is not to say that free speech doesn't need to be protected! It's just to say that the government has a legitimate interest in promoting its own democratic nature, so a mandatory voting system is possibly legal.

Don't forget that civil disobedience is an important form of speech. Think of not voting in this situation as a speech tax. It's free as in speech, not free as in beer. :P

Re: Vote.org is a non-profit that wants to get the U.S. to 100% voter turnout

#420

Post by reddytowns »

e40 wrote: post #239
baron816 wrote: post #156

The biggest reason people in the US don't vote is because they don't have enough options so they never get to choose people they really care about. Plus, no individual vote matters. This all has to do with our winner-take-all elections. Countries with proportional representation have much higher voter turnout rates (often in the 80-90% range). That's because you get to vote for the person or party you want, and they'…

The biggest reason people in the US don't vote is because they don't have enough options so they never get to choose people they really care about. Sorry, this is complete malarky. The calculus of voting is: vote for the least of two evils. If we had 100% voting and everyone did this, the politicians would get better over time, because they would learn that being a certain way would result in failure. The general poo…

The problem is not "being a certain way" leads to not raising enough money to compete, and/or being ignored by the media.

It's not an equation, but rather one gigantic shit show designed to stir emotion, bought and paid for by those who have money, and they give it to both sides.

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