Should we be encouraging voting?

[William Wallace]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v65YAhahLRY

In short, people are so horrendously uninformed about politics that encouraging them to vote is dangerous. Do you agree?

[Ħ]

Lol.

I used to believe that each person should be given a certain weight to their votes, based upon merit, income, and education.  There are so many idiots out there.

But of course that doesn't fly in democracy, in a world where most people vote in favor of self-interest.

[Adami]

If people are voting uninformed, then that represents the people.

[Scrub206]

Lol.

I used to believe that each person should be given a certain weight to their votes, based upon merit, income, and education.  There are so many idiots out there.

But of course that doesn't fly in democracy, in a world where most people vote in favor of self-interest.

WHY DID YOU POST..... YOU RUINED A PERFECTLY GOOD POST COUNT

EDIT: sorry didnt realize what section this was under thought it was general lol... CARRY ON !

[sneakyblueberry]

Yeah, just had an experience with this during our local body elections here in NZ.  A polynesian politician put pictures of his face and his name up all around my town, which is largely polynesian itself.  That's it.  A brown face and a polynesian name.  He also got his volunteers to call every person on the electoral roll with a polynesian last name to speak to them in their native languages and tell them to vote for him.  In the end he won the election, even though I'd say a good majority of the people who voted for him couldn't name a single policy of his.  Pathetic.  People, especially in this case with polynesian people, will just vote for a familiar face, while having no idea of what the candidate would push for once they were in.

I think, along the same sort of lines as Brother H was saying, there needs to be some sort of criteria to make sure people are making informed decisions instead of just blindly giving their vote to someone just because they look like a familiar face.  So many stupid people out there.

[Ħ]

Bring back the literacy tests!

[Perpetual Change]

I'd say make voting compulsory, and make passing a quiz about the policies of the last election's major candidates necessary for passing high-school.

[Ħ]

The thing is, there are more people out there that know their voting rights would be at stake than not, so this type of voting redaction would never pass.

[Seventh Son]

I'd say make voting compulsory, and make passing a quiz about the policies of the last election's major candidates necessary for passing high-school.

lolwut

Are you telling me you want it mandatory for me to vote for a piece of shit? No thank you.

[sneakyblueberry]

I'd say make voting compulsory, and make passing a quiz about the policies of the last election's major candidates necessary for passing high-school.

lolwut

Are you telling me you want it mandatory for me to vote for a piece of shit? No thank you.

Pretty sure that's not what he's saying at all.

[jsem]

If one does not know the candidates, or anything about the issues - maybe staying home is a GOOD idea.

[hefdaddy42]

If one does not know the candidates, or anything about the issues - maybe staying home is a GOOD idea.

One shouldn't be so in the dark.  That's one of the big problems in this country.  Unfortunately, there's no good way to correct that.

[Seventh Son]

I'd say make voting compulsory, and make passing a quiz about the policies of the last election's major candidates necessary for passing high-school.

lolwut

Are you telling me you want it mandatory for me to vote for a piece of shit? No thank you.

Pretty sure that's not what he's saying at all.

com·pul·so·ry
   /kəmˈpʌlsəri/ Show Spelled [kuhm-puhl-suh-ree] Show IPA adjective, noun,plural-ries.
–adjective
1.
required; mandatory; obligatory: compulsory education.
2.
using compulsion; compelling; constraining: compulsory measures to control rioting.

https://dictionary.reference.com/browse/compulsory

[Ħ]

If there was compulsory voting, you could always vote for yourself.

[Perpetual Change]

I'd say make voting compulsory, and make passing a quiz about the policies of the last election's major candidates necessary for passing high-school.

lolwut

Are you telling me you want it mandatory for me to vote for a piece of shit? No thank you.

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. And, like someone else said, if that includes voting for yourself have at it 

[Seventh Son]

I'd say make voting compulsory, and make passing a quiz about the policies of the last election's major candidates necessary for passing high-school.

lolwut

Are you telling me you want it mandatory for me to vote for a piece of shit? No thank you.

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying.

I see. Did the thought ever occur I don't like either guy in office and neither one represents the kind of leader I want to see and not voting is a way of saying "Shape up if you want my vote"? I mean, that only encourages politicians to stay the same course as before, because you HAVE to vote for them. Its absolutely insane. Why should you vote for someone you don't feel represents what you want to see in a leader?

So in short, fuck you.

[Seventh Son]

I'd say make voting compulsory, and make passing a quiz about the policies of the last election's major candidates necessary for passing high-school.

lolwut

Are you telling me you want it mandatory for me to vote for a piece of shit? No thank you.

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. And, like someone else said, if that includes voting for yourself have at it 

Pretty sure voting for yourself won't be possible unless you pony up the money required to run for that office. I don't think you're arbitrarily allowed to vote for yourself.

[hefdaddy42]

So in short, fuck you.

In short, don't pull that shit again.

[GuineaPig]

Imo, the only real way to fix voter turnout is to change the electoral process.  In Canada your votes essentially don't matter unless you voted for the winner in your riding.  That needs to change so that every vote is reflected in the make-up of the overall parliament.

[Ħ]

I'd say make voting compulsory, and make passing a quiz about the policies of the last election's major candidates necessary for passing high-school.

lolwut

Are you telling me you want it mandatory for me to vote for a piece of shit? No thank you.

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. And, like someone else said, if that includes voting for yourself have at it 

Pretty sure voting for yourself won't be possible unless you pony up the money required to run for that office. I don't think you're arbitrarily allowed to vote for yourself.

I know you're 10 years old or something, and you've never seen a ballot, but there's a checkbox that says

Other ___________

[Perpetual Change]

I'd say make voting compulsory, and make passing a quiz about the policies of the last election's major candidates necessary for passing high-school.

lolwut

Are you telling me you want it mandatory for me to vote for a piece of shit? No thank you.

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. And, like someone else said, if that includes voting for yourself have at it  

Pretty sure voting for yourself won't be possible unless you pony up the money required to run for that office. I don't think you're arbitrarily allowed to vote for yourself.

Yeah, you can. Have you ever voted? You can write in names. And please stop taking this so seriously. If you are going to tell people to go fuck themselves because you don't like what they say, you don't belong in PR. Or on these forums at all, honestly. Of course, that's just my two cents 

[William Wallace]

I'd say make voting compulsory, and make passing a quiz about the policies of the last election's major candidates necessary for passing high-school.

Except for mandatory voting, we have that already; it's called political science. And am I the only one that finds it strange to use coercion to strengthen a democratic institution like free elections?

[GuineaPig]

I'd say make voting compulsory, and make passing a quiz about the policies of the last election's major candidates necessary for passing high-school.

Except for mandatory voting, we have that already; it's called political science. And am I the only one that finds it strange to use coercion to strengthen a democratic institution like free elections?

No.  Imo, the right to vote entails the right not to vote.

[Sigz]

And am I the only one that finds it strange to use coercion to strengthen a democratic institution like free elections?

No, and I really don't see what it would accomplish.

[Perpetual Change]

I'd say make voting compulsory, and make passing a quiz about the policies of the last election's major candidates necessary for passing high-school.

Except for mandatory voting, we have that already; it's called political science. And am I the only one that finds it strange to use coercion to strengthen a democratic institution like free elections?

The idea, ideally, would be to make voting as painless as possible. I admit to do that we'd have to change a lot of things about the voting process. But in the end, I think compulsory voting would do more harm than good. Candidates would have to appeal to everyday Americans rather than just wing-nuts, and also I think as a result people would be more active in other ways.  

But to answer the original question: yes, we should encourage voting. Active citizenry is essential to healthy democracy. But we also should be encouraging people to be involved in other ways outside the ballot box.

[rumborak]

I think it would be really interesting to try a similar system as in jury duty, where a group of people has to come to a consensus before casting their vote. Maybe do a double vote, where your first vote is your individual vote for something, and the second vote is the group vote (weighted by the number of people in it).

rumborak

[sneakyblueberry]

I'd say make voting compulsory, and make passing a quiz about the policies of the last election's major candidates necessary for passing high-school.

lolwut

Are you telling me you want it mandatory for me to vote for a piece of shit? No thank you.

Pretty sure that's not what he's saying at all.

com·pul·so·ry

Sorry, I didn't read PC's post properly.  I thought you were referring to 'last elections candidates' as pieces of shit.  Now I realise you just think everyone is a piece of shit.  Your attitude is pretty bad.

[XJDenton]

I think voting should be compulsory, with an abstain option on every ballot for those that wish to project their ire of the political system.

[Adami]

I think voting should be compulsory, with an abstain option on every ballot for those that wish to project their ire of the political system.

I'll vote for the first candidate to suggest putting casinos on the moon.

Till then, no voting.

[kirbywelch92]

I say we don't tell people about they're right to vote, that way the people that want to vote will go out of their way to find out when and where they can. If people never ask where their leadership comes from, they'll never have the opportunity to change it.

[Chino]

Regarding the elections a few weeks ago

I had at least a dozen friends that were pretty pumped they voted. I know for a fact they had no clue what they were even voting for. I tried having discussions with them prior to the elections, and they were clueless. Several were not even sure who was running, yet they still chose someone in the voting booth. I think encouraging and glorifying voting can be very dangerous.

[j]

Why would we "encourage" voting?  If a person has to be encouraged to vote (and assuming they're not abstaining from voting for other reasons), they do not care about it enough to do it on their own, or to inform themselves as necessary.  Better that that person doesn't vote.

As for the problem of an uninformed populace, I have never heard a feasible potential solution suggested, and I'm skeptical that one exists.

-J

[Tick]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v65YAhahLRY

In short, people are so horrendously uninformed about politics that encouraging them to vote is dangerous. Do you agree?

I know Barack Obama doesn't.

[ehra]

HAHAHA. Good one Tick, you made my night. You're the man! 

[Perpetual Change]

The thing I don't get about all this is that people would actually suggest giving up on the democratic process before attempting to solve the problem by changing the voting system or getting the populace more informed.