Voting Worthless?

[Howard]

To all that voted "Yes": Please don't vote on 6 NOV 2012.

Thank you.

I'm pretty sure you're only saying this because you think that most people who believe that voting is worthless would otherwise vote Democrat.

 

[spittledip]

Wow. More "yes" than "no" votes. We are a cynical bunch.

 

[Craig234]

On a local scale where so few people actually get out and vote, voting does matter.

On the presedential level, voting is pointless and a waste of time other than to say you did it. Case in point, 2008. I voted for the first time. I voted for Barack Obama ( crappy decision. still better than letting somebody like sarah palin get such a high seat ) McCain/Palin won my state. So, my vote counted for nothing.

It counted for showing not everyone in Texas supported McCain/Palin. It counted for you getting to have 'a say'. It's more of a vote than people affected by our policies had.

 

[Craig234]

It irritates to me that many millions of people have sacrificed (and are sacrificing) their lives and time to achieve and protect freedom for this country while there is a sizeable portion of whiners that won't take a half hour to vote "because it won't do anything"-yet the same whiners do absolutely nothing to improve the system by doing something so small as to volunteer to work for candidates they support.

If the teabaggers ever got real serious and demanded people pass a citizenship test in order to remain in this country (rather than it being a birthright) then maybe I could even support them-or at least that part of their platform.

I despise gimmies and leeches.

I don't think the sacrifice of people in war is a good argument for voting.

People in war have sacrificied for a lot of crappy reasons, largely profiting the rich.

This 'they sacrificed' argument is used for some bad things, including to say 'we can't end the war or their sacrifice will be meaningless'.

Voting is either 'useful' or it isn't, regardless of wars. I argued why it is, but not as useful as it should be.

 

[Throckmorton]

Voting is worthless unless you live in a swing state

 

[fskimospy]

Voting is worthless unless you live in a swing state

Still worthless, even in a swing state.

 

[shortylickens]

If you vote for a republican or democrat, yes.

 

[Throckmorton]

I should say.. Voting for national offices is worthless outside a swing state. Local and state elections are still important.

 

[fskimospy]

I should say.. Voting for national offices is worthless in a swing state. Local and state elections are still important.

As I've posted before, voting in basically every election is worthless. Your odds of actually affecting the outcome are so small as to not be worth the time it takes to vote. It's sort of sad when you think about it, but it's totally true.

 

[a777pilot]

I'm pretty sure you're only saying this because you think that most people who believe that voting is worthless would otherwise vote Democrat.

You could be right, but you're not.

 

[sportage]

Considering the country is and forever will be owned and operated by Goldman Sachs, and I doubt anything outside a full nuke war or some space alien attack would ever change that, I'd say YES to "is voting worthless?". Like they said on msnbc tonight as to Obama, where he is today back to playing up to his progressive base in campaign mode, but will soon revert back to his republican friendly middle of the road mode to regain those independents needed to win Ohio and Pennsylvania. In other words, yep... we're screwed no matter who is in. Consider the devastation done by wall street during the GW era, then we elect Obama and what does he do? He appoints more Goldman Sachs big shots to his administration. You know... the little guys. lol

 

[Nebor]

As I've posted before, voting in basically every election is worthless. Your odds of actually affecting the outcome are so small as to not be worth the time it takes to vote. It's sort of sad when you think about it, but it's totally true.

See, you and I are totally on the same page. I'm sorry I called you a Paulbot. :wub:

 

[Nebor]

It irritates to me that many millions of people have sacrificed (and are sacrificing) their lives and time to achieve and protect freedom for this country while there is a sizeable portion of whiners that won't take a half hour to vote "because it won't do anything"-yet the same whiners do absolutely nothing to improve the system by doing something so small as to volunteer to work for candidates they support.

If the teabaggers ever got real serious and demanded people pass a citizenship test in order to remain in this country (rather than it being a birthright) then maybe I could even support them-or at least that part of their platform.

I despise gimmies and leeches.

Wait, so what if I'm one of these (so called) protectors of freedom, serving in the US armed forces, deploying to combat zones.... And I still don't believe in voting?

 

[a777pilot]

Wait, so what if I'm one of these (so called) protectors of freedom, serving in the US armed forces, deploying to combat zones.... And I still don't believe in voting?

Thank you for your service and then don't vote. It's your choice.

 

[Nebor]

Thank you for your service and then don't vote. It's your choice.

:thumbsup: Here's hoping the budget super committee fails and we see 25% cuts to DoD.

If every O-5 in the military would just look around them and cut 25% of their expenditures on ridiculous crap, we wouldn't be talking about dismissing 200,000 service members. What's even more vexing is that those very O-5s grew up in the 1990s military of austerity and belt tightening, but ever since the war on terror kicked off they just can't wean themselves off the god damn trough.

 

[SandEagle]

Diebold voting machines can be hacked by remote control, using $10 in parts:


http://www.salon.com/news/politics/elections/2011/09/27/votinghack/index.html

 

[a777pilot]

Diebold voting machines can be hacked by remote control, using $10 in parts:


http://www.salon.com/news/politics/elections/2011/09/27/votinghack/index.html

I vote via a paper ballot.

 

[monovillage]

Voting is totally worthless and a waste of time for anyone left of the political center. I urge them to protest this waste of their time by staying at home and not voting in the next 5 or 6 elections.

 

[Craig234]

I vote via a paper ballot.

 

[Thegonagle]

Why do people think it's worthless? Look at Minnesota.

In MN, there are some of the most practical, tightest, consistent, transparent, fairest, "we thought of everything, and everything we didn't think about we fixed before the next election" election laws in the nation. Every vote is on a paper ballot which is usually optically scanned, although counties are also allowed to hand count if they wish. The important thing is the recountable marked paper ballot. That is STATE LAW.

There's a canvassing process which double-checks each precinct's numbers to be sure everything adds up, and automatic random hand-counted audits of dozens of precincts to triple-check that nothing shady is going on.

Above all, Minnesota believes that every single vote must be counted according to the voter's intent, with every last ballot accounted for.

And MN is among the best for turnout in every national election (like top 3 every time), and among the best participation in the nation in local and statewide elections as well. I like to think that this is because Minnesotans believe in the process.

We've had two automatically-triggered statewide BY-HAND recounts in the last two elections. Every moment of both is online for all to see (at uptake.org). There's no BS, and no conspiracies afoot.

In 2008, Norm Coleman didn't have a legal leg to stand on, and in 2010, Tom Emmer was down approximately 9,000 votes in the machine count, which is generally accurate to a few thousandths, not thousands, so the automatic recount was a mere formality.

Nobody familiar with our processes (and naturally, not crazy) disbelieves the election results.

Florida 2000 would have never happened in Minnesota.

 

[Craig234]

Florida 2000 would have never happened in Minnesota.

Your governor wasn't the brother of a candidate and your Scretary of State appointed by him wasn't the co-chair of the same candidate's campaign.

You don't have a state legislature the same party as the candidate willing to overturn the election results to vote to give all the delegates to their candidate if needed.

 

[Nebor]

Your governor wasn't the brother of a candidate and your Scretary of State appointed by him wasn't the co-chair of the same candidate's campaign.

You don't have a state legislature the same party as the candidate willing to overturn the election results to vote to give all the delegates to their candidate if needed.

I can't believe you still believe in democracy after the whole world watched that election stolen on 24 hour news coverage, and no one did anything about it. It was tantamount to one of Saddam Hussein's "elections" or any number of African dictatorships. You're such a chump.

 

[Ausm]

Voting is totally worthless and a waste of time for anyone left of the political center. I urge them to protest this waste of their time by staying at home and not voting in the next 5 or 6 elections.

I sense a post from a Republican This happened in my state when the Democrats sat on their hands and didn't go out and vote now we are saddled with a Plutocracy in my State.

 

[a777pilot]

Why do people think it's worthless? Look at Minnesota.

In MN, there are some of the most practical, tightest, consistent, transparent, fairest, "we thought of everything, and everything we didn't think about we fixed before the next election" election laws in the nation. Every vote is on a paper ballot which is usually optically scanned, although counties are also allowed to hand count if they wish. The important thing is the recountable marked paper ballot. That is STATE LAW.

There's a canvassing process which double-checks each precinct's numbers to be sure everything adds up, and automatic random hand-counted audits of dozens of precincts to triple-check that nothing shady is going on.

Above all, Minnesota believes that every single vote must be counted according to the voter's intent, with every last ballot accounted for.

And MN is among the best for turnout in every national election (like top 3 every time), and among the best participation in the nation in local and statewide elections as well. I like to think that this is because Minnesotans believe in the process.

We've had two automatically-triggered statewide BY-HAND recounts in the last two elections. Every moment of both is online for all to see (at uptake.org). There's no BS, and no conspiracies afoot.

In 2008, Norm Coleman didn't have a legal leg to stand on, and in 2010, Tom Emmer was down approximately 9,000 votes in the machine count, which is generally accurate to a few thousandths, not thousands, so the automatic recount was a mere formality.

Nobody familiar with our processes (and naturally, not crazy) disbelieves the election results.

Florida 2000 would have never happened in Minnesota.

It's a good system but it allows Democrats to be in charge. That is how stacks of "ballots" are found in a person's car and allowed to be counted. Only in a Democrat controlled process can a Democrat win a precinct with the total count of votes being more than the number of those that actually voted and allowed to stand.

That's OK. Minnesota put in a comedian into the Senate via this process. He fits in well with the others.

 

[fskimospy]

Why do people think it's worthless? Look at Minnesota.

In MN, there are some of the most practical, tightest, consistent, transparent, fairest, "we thought of everything, and everything we didn't think about we fixed before the next election" election laws in the nation. Every vote is on a paper ballot which is usually optically scanned, although counties are also allowed to hand count if they wish. The important thing is the recountable marked paper ballot. That is STATE LAW.

There's a canvassing process which double-checks each precinct's numbers to be sure everything adds up, and automatic random hand-counted audits of dozens of precincts to triple-check that nothing shady is going on.

Above all, Minnesota believes that every single vote must be counted according to the voter's intent, with every last ballot accounted for.

And MN is among the best for turnout in every national election (like top 3 every time), and among the best participation in the nation in local and statewide elections as well. I like to think that this is because Minnesotans believe in the process.

We've had two automatically-triggered statewide BY-HAND recounts in the last two elections. Every moment of both is online for all to see (at uptake.org). There's no BS, and no conspiracies afoot.

In 2008, Norm Coleman didn't have a legal leg to stand on, and in 2010, Tom Emmer was down approximately 9,000 votes in the machine count, which is generally accurate to a few thousandths, not thousands, so the automatic recount was a mere formality.

Nobody familiar with our processes (and naturally, not crazy) disbelieves the election results.

Florida 2000 would have never happened in Minnesota.

As I've said multiple times in this thread, it has nothing to do with the idea that votes somehow aren't fairly counted, it has to do with the simple math of it. The odds are so small that your vote will affect the outcome that it simply isn't worth your time from a mathematical/economic utility standpoint.

You would be just as well off using that time to go buy lottery tickets.