Election day

[unixronin]

To be a citizen in a democracy, representative or direct, is not just a privilege.  It is also a responsibility, to keep that democracy on the right track and see that it does not go astray.  A citizen of that democracy who has the right to vote, who is happy to partake in the privileges, but who cannot be bothered to exercise the responsibility of using their vote, is only half a citizen.

I went out and voted today.  Did you?

(It was an optical-scan paper ballot, by the way.)

Comments

[smandal.livejournal.com]

Your argument follows from a false premise. Many, many people will vote regardless of whether or not I do. Specifically:

* The fact that most of the electorate is stupid is independent of whether or not I vote, so I'm perfectly within my rights to complain about their stupidity

* The closest statewide election I can recall is several hundred ballots are presidential Florida 2000 and a gubernatorial race I can't remember. For the sake of argument, let's say the margin is 100. If I don't vote, my candidate wins by 99 or loses by 101. No difference, esp. if the random noise due to counting error is comparable to or greater than margin/total.

* The only way my not voting affects the choice of others to vote is by talking about it like this :)

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I didn't say other people wouldn't vote because you didn't. But what if you don't vote, and a hundred of your best friends who have very similar political leanings also don't vote because of very similar logic?

[smandal.livejournal.com]

Yes, we should whisper :P

Wasn't it your idea to combine the ballot and tax return? I would probably bother bubbling for my candidate if i were already sitting down to compute my pound of flesh. I also suspect that the electorate would be much more libertarian-minded under such a scheme ...

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

So do I. I think it probably brings new sharpness to the question of who will best serve you in public office if you're making the decision right after being painfully reminded of how much of the fruits of your labors your "representatives" spent last year.