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Remind HN: Vote

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Re: Remind HN: Vote

#301

Post by SkyMarshal »

riffic wrote: post #85
jdub wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plus, we vote on Saturday. Weekday voting is incredibly disenfranchising.

In 1845, the United States was largely an agrarian society. Farmers often needed a full day to travel by horse-drawn vehicles to the county seat to vote. Tuesday was established as election day because it did not interfere with the Biblical Sabbath or with market day, which was on Wednesday in many towns. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Election_Day_(United_States)

So why not Saturday? That article doesn't mention it.

Neither sabbath nor market day, yet still a weekend day. Or did people back then consider Saturday a regular work/week day too?

Re: Remind HN: Vote

#302

Post by Semiapies »

ihumanable wrote: post #107

Starship Troopers: "No. Something given has no basis in value. When you vote, you are exercising political authority, you're using force. And force my friends is violence. The supreme authority from which all other authorities are derived." Voting is so badass.

What struck me as funny in that line is that it's essentially a re-purposed bit of anarchist rhetoric...

Re: Remind HN: Vote

#303

Post by younata »

philwelch wrote: post #285
younata wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an out of state college student, I'm very much so fond of voting by mail. I voted about three weeks ago.

Generally, you're also allowed to register to vote where you go to college, too.

yes, but I don't particularly care about the politics in the state I'm in.

Re: Remind HN: Vote

#304

Post by Semiapies »

RiderOfGiraffes wrote: post #13
cletus wrote: post #7

In Australia voting is mandatory. If you're registered to vote and you don't you can get fined. If no one is registered to vote at your address you'll tend to get lots of mail about it (but ultimately, staying off the electoral roll isn't difficult). I used to think this was a bad idea as it forced people to vote who didn't really care. In recent years I've come around to the opposite point of view based pretty much…

And for those who complain about not having the right to abstain, you can get the same effect by turning up and spoiling your ballot paper. You can even make a show of doing it so that everyone can see you're deliberately not casting a valid vote. That makes more of a point that staying home and being invisible.

"You can even make a show of doing it"

Why should I be forced to show up for your voting-day entertainment?

Re: Remind HN: Vote

#305

Post by SkyMarshal »

jmaygarden wrote: post #282
shinkansen wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fact some States (e.g. WA was like this) only allow voting by mail. Potentially disenfranchising perhaps; how do I vote if I'm homeless?

You'd go to a post office. If a homeless person can't figure that out, then they are uninformed. The US system doesn't work with uninformed voters. So, that's a win IMHO. "Convinced that the people are the only safe depositories of their own liberty, and that they are not safe unless enlightened to a certain degree, I have looked on our present state of liberty as a short-lived possession unless the mass of the peopl…

It's easier to be informed of candidates' position than the logistics of voting. Free and discarded newspapers are everywhere, and cover the former extensively, but the latter only marginally if at all.

Case in point, at least two HN readers (OP and myself) didn't know homeless people could vote by mail at the US Post Office, but I know at least one of them is very well-informed on the issues.

Re: Remind HN: Vote

#306

Post by rue »

mahmud wrote: post #15
cletus wrote: post #7

In Australia voting is mandatory. If you're registered to vote and you don't you can get fined. If no one is registered to vote at your address you'll tend to get lots of mail about it (but ultimately, staying off the electoral roll isn't difficult). I used to think this was a bad idea as it forced people to vote who didn't really care. In recent years I've come around to the opposite point of view based pretty much…

I am Yank, Arab and Somali (I hold three passports) and I will soon be an Aussie, via marriage. I have spent a year in Australia. My feeling is that Aussies are not really as political as Americans. American voting is under-informed and has low turn out, but at least the few percentage of electorate that vote actually care . Aussies .. I am not sure if they don't care, or if they're just good at hiding their politica…

> American voting is under-informed and has low turn out, but at least the few percentage of electorate that vote actually care.

I think politics among the US electorate is exactly analogous to bikeshed discussions on a mailing list.

Re: Remind HN: Vote

#308

Post by rue »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #301
riffic wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 1845, the United States was largely an agrarian society. Farmers often needed a full day to travel by horse-drawn vehicles to the county seat to vote. Tuesday was established as election day because it did not interfere with the Biblical Sabbath or with market day, which was on Wednesday in many towns. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Election_Day_(United_States)

So why not Saturday? That article doesn't mention it. Neither sabbath nor market day, yet still a weekend day. Or did people back then consider Saturday a regular work/week day too?

Not Saturday because it would, presumably, take that same whole day to get back.

Re: Remind HN: Vote

#309

Post by Semiapies »

devmonk wrote: post #99
jswinghammer wrote: post #72

I won't be voting. I am a libertarian so my vote doesn't matter anyway. Plus I feel that not voting sends a stronger signal about how I feel about our system of government. If more people don't vote it will be harder for them to pretend they have a mandate to raise taxes, give money to the banks, and start wars. The government is long beyond saving. If you vote you take some responsibility for the next war, the next…

If you are a Libertarian, you should find and write-in your candidates, not stay home. If there is no known candidate, you should write in "Libertarian", if there is a space to do so. And if there is no Libertarian on the ballot, you should learn as much as you can about the candidates and vote for the ones that best match your set of values. Odds are that you lean either more towards the liberal social values side o…

"If you are a Libertarian, you should find and write-in your candidates, not stay home"

Actually, the LP is very good at getting on ballots, so write-ins are usually unnecessary for those who want to vote for them.

However, can you put together a cogent argument why he should go to all that trouble just so you can skim over the section in the results showing that the Libertarian Party candidate for Congress got a handful of votes?

Re: Remind HN: Vote

#310

Post by spinlock »

vaksel wrote: post #130

personally I don't vote for 3 reasons: 1. my vote doesn't matter. I live in a 100% blue state, it'll go Democrat no matter what. So whether I decide to vote democrat or republican or green, my vote really won't matter. + the redestricting is always aimed at propping up small states. Why does California and Delaware both get 2 senators? 2. the system is broken, there are no good politicians. There is no incentive for…

I think that voting for third party candidates is a great way to move a cause forward if you live in a state (or district) that is locked into one of the parties. If you care about the environment, vote for the green party. You won't change the outcome of the election but what you will change is the issues that the parties run on in the next election. For instance, if the Republicans lose your state by 5% but they see that the Green party won 2% of the vote, they will try to get that 2%. They will do this by adopting the Green Party's platform (third parties are usually very narrow so one of the big two can co-opt their entire platform). Now, you have a major party that is pushing for your agenda and you did it by voting in an election where "you vote doesn't count."
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