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Discussion » Statements » Rosie's Corner » Is voting important to you or do you never bother because it requires participation on your part and you simply have better things to do?

Is voting important to you or do you never bother because it requires participation on your part and you simply have better things to do?

Posted - August 13, 2020

Responses


  • 3680
    I regard it as important whether local or general, election, and would never put it off as having "better things to do".

    Admittedly I live only a couple of minutes' walk from the church-hall usually hired as my local polling-station, so the whole process takes only a short time, but even when I lived further from one I still made the effort.
      August 13, 2020 12:06 PM MDT
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  • 113301
    In times past have you had to wait in long lines or were there enough polling locations to handle it? Thank you for your reply Durdle! :)
      August 13, 2020 2:39 PM MDT
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  • 3680
    I don't remember ever having to queue for very long at all.

    The polling-stations open at something like 7am and close at 10pm I think, and there are a goodly number across the town and its surroundings because they divide the constituencies into smaller local-council wards.

    Also the voting only takes a couple of minutes or so.

    When I was working I usually voted on my way to work. Now I'm retired I can vote at any time of day, usually mid-morning, when it's quieter.
      August 13, 2020 5:54 PM MDT
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  • 113301
    Thank you for your informative reply Durdle. So voting is not an ordeal by any means. That's very good. I don't know how the press in your country covered the gawdawful mess of voting in our country. Perhaps not at all. But a few months ago for the primary in I think it was Georgia( but I could be mistaken) masked folks had to wait HOURS in line to vote. Why? Because the SOB's who run that gubment shut down most of the polling locations. So obviously lines would form for those that still existed. I never thought that voting would be on the hit list in America. Happy Friday! STAY SAFE! :)
      August 14, 2020 1:51 AM MDT
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  • 3680
    Thankfully the voting procedure in Britain is simple, but we have had to cancel a local-government election due to the pandemic. No news yet on when it will be held. At the moment it's hardly the most important matter in politics!

    What is being reported here is who is running for what, and the gist of the debating and slanging-matches. I don't remember hearing of the queues in (Georgia?) but may have missed that.

    Also, we've heard via BBC Radio Four, more analytical investigations into the state of politics in the USA. The notes in the listings magazine Radio Times for one programme, revealed startling statistics:

      -  Republican presidential candidates won 3 of the last 5 elections despite winning the popular vote only once in those 20 years. (I don't really understand that. Is it an effect of that "electoral college" system?)

     - Texas' 29 million residents are represented by the same number of Senators as Vermont's 623 000 residents - just two.

     - The District of Columbia's own 700 000 residents cannot elect any members of Congress to represent them.  

    It seems that structures established at the start of the USA's history may now look out of place and ineffective, and this is before any weaknesses exploited by vote-rigging or gerrymandering.

    At the moment though, the appalling situation in Belorussia is attracting as much reporting on the News.
      August 14, 2020 2:51 PM MDT
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  • 32527
    Yes Trump and W did not win popular vote.  But before that popular vote and EC agreed all but once.   

    All states get 2 Senators.  This is because the Senate was supposed to represent the STATE not the people of the state. Originally they were appointed not voted by the people.  We changed that so now they are elected by the people so they must represent the people now. 

    They capped the number of Representatives in the House in early part of the 20th century.  This is why it is increasingly possible to get the EC off from the popular vote now.  We should have thousands of House members instead we have hundreds.  This would keep the House more responsible for the people in there district. 

    The purpose of the EC is to force candidates to appeal to then entire country not just the more populous states.  If we were just popular vote....NY, CA and TX would decide the election...the rest of the country would be a side point.  In fact, the 3+Millions votes Hillary won by was less than the amount she won CA by...without CA in the mix...Trump won the popular vote. 

      August 14, 2020 3:25 PM MDT
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  • 113301
    Thank you for your thoughtful reply Durdle. At the moment the most crushing things are two excluding the pandemic of course.

    The pols have gone home for their August vacation and will return to work after Labor Day which is September 7. They passed no legislation to help the jobless whose weekly $600 unemployment checks stopped on July 31. How will they survive? Well apparently their elected representatives do not give a sh**

    The second issue is the attack on our postal system. The goal is to cripple it so badly that voting by mail is going to be the casualty. The rinkydinkyfinky postmaster (a wealthy pumpkina** campaign contributor) has done this so far. Cut out overtime for postal workers. Removed dozens of the blue mail drop boxes scattered around the country and had many unbolted and carted away before he was caught and has now "suspended" doing more of it until after the election. Pulled out 671 mail sorting machines from various post office locations with plans to destroy them. These machines sort 36,000 pieces of mail per hour. Sent letters out to 46 states warning them that mail-in ballots would not be counted. I am not joking. This is all deadly true. So you see m'dear we are in dire straits here due to an incredibly insane pumpkina** who so far has not been stopped from his goal of completely wiping out the United States we used to know it to be and replacing it with another Confederacy and that is what he will president. I wish I were making this stuff up. Happy Saturday to thee and thine! :)
      August 15, 2020 2:41 AM MDT
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  • 3680
    Thank you for explaining it.

    I can see the logic, or at least intentions, of the EC and limit on number of politicians, because the country is so vast with its population spread very unevenly, geographically speaking.

    That 2016 election was quite close then, with a difference of 25 in a total 435 Congressional Districts. I wonder how close this one will be, but what will happen if it is thrown by underhand tactics.

    I'd thought the Postal Service was pleading poverty by Governmental funding cuts - I have just commented as such on another of your threads - and had no idea that the Postmaster was trying to sabotage the voting. In 46 states though? Isn't that most of them?  It all makes the situation even more confusing and dirty. No doubt too, President Putin will be taking a keen interest in things too - just as he does with other countries.

    How are they going to sort it out without risking the USA being seen around the world to be as bad as the countries it likes to criticise for unfair elections?

    +++

    The UK (and probably many other  countries) has its version of that unemployment aid, called here "furloughing". That is due to end in the next couple of months, and yes, we are all seriously concerned what will, or might, happen next. We did know it would end sooner or later anyway, but that's against no-one knowing how long this pandemic will continue, or being able to make any more than intelligent guesses if its long-term financial, social and cultural effects.
      August 16, 2020 4:31 PM MDT
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  • 113301
    You're welcome. My pleasure. Well it isn't a pleasure at all what's going on but I'm happy to explain it to you so that you can understand why I sometimes got more than a bit ticked off at your response to things that are happening here. You can't react to what you know nothing of. The Post Office appears in the Constitution. It was NEVER INTENDED TO BE A BUSINESS. IT IS A SERVICE. But as with everything else he is terrified of the pumpkina** will try to destroy it. How far he gets is anyone's guess. The fake bobblehead postmaster will appear before Congress August 24 to explain himself. That ought to be good. The Dems on the investigating committee will be the only questioners. The attack dog republican toady sycophants will softball the guy and coddle him and say what a GREAT job he has done. The usual bullsh** you can always count on from the republican attack dogs. They do it by rote being scripted you see which is why all the times there are investigations you can predict word for word what they will say. Lathesome useless harmful robotic braindead zombified automatons. Not one brain in their collective heads. Only mouths that blather gibberish. I despise all of them for their traitoring and treason and supporting unconditionally that crackpot evil wackadoodlenoodle. What the future will be immediately for us I have no idea. They are caught with their hands in the cookie hars crumbs all over their faces denying lying. We've been there before. We are a banana republic 3rd world SH**HOLE country thanks to ;pumpkina**. Putin is delighted with his lapdogpuppet useful idiot. Understandable. Thank you for your reply and Happy Monday to thee and thine Durdle! STAY SAFE! :)
      August 17, 2020 1:54 AM MDT
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  • 32527
    I vote when I care about the result. I have not voted yet this year. But I will vote in Nov this year. In person. 
      August 14, 2020 3:10 PM MDT
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  • 16197
    Vitally. Firstly, if you don't vote, you have no right to complain about how things are being run, because you didn't do anything to change it.
    Secondly, I care about the result. I don't want Murdererdoch's puppets to control me.
    Thirdly, it's compulsory in Australia. I don't need the fine, even though it's minor.
      August 16, 2020 4:39 PM MDT
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  • 13251
    Kind of like someone who doesn't live or vote in the US complaining about Trump.
      August 16, 2020 4:44 PM MDT
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  • 16197
    Something I CAN'T do anything to change, other than to point out a few obvious facts to possibly influence a vacillating voter or two. The man scares me.
      August 16, 2020 4:49 PM MDT
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  • 13251
    If the facts are obvious, they don't need pointing out. And I seriously doubt anyone on here is vacillating.
      August 16, 2020 6:27 PM MDT
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  • 13251
    I always vote. It's not hard to do. And you disliking the outcome of the 2016 election does not mean that voting is a "gawdawful mess."
      August 16, 2020 4:42 PM MDT
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  • I haven't missed any election at any time in fifty years. If I miss one, it will be this year's general election. A rigged sham of an election with the outcome known in advance, isn't worth one minute of my time. This thing is a joke.
      August 16, 2020 8:24 PM MDT
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