Will you give up your right to vote for $$$$?

[Ruptga]

Can I get another poll option?

"No, because if I don't take the money but many other do, my vote counts more."

Or "no, I'd try to bluff for more but would settle for 1k."

My first reaction was actually "hell no", but then I thought about it and realized I'd get far more out of 1k than my vote. I could probably find someone saying the right things to get my vote, but they wouldn't be elected and if they somehow did they'd probably either sell out and forget what they campaigned on, or get stonewalled.

The US political system is a pathetic mess of every adjective for incompetence and corruption that you can think of, and has been that way for a long time. We preach about the free market but applying even its basic concepts to our elections is inconceivable, no doubt because neither major party would survive if they had to compete against anyone but each other.

 

[WilliamM2]

Sorta. In midterms, yes, the majority does not even vote. But in presidential elections the majority of eligible voters do vote.

Key word "eligible voters". With a $1000 payoff, I think you will find a lot more people registering to vote, and then not voting.

 

[WilliamM2]

Anyone who doesn't vote has no right to complain about anything political as they've opted to do nothing anyway

That would be true, but in most elections, it doesn't matter which candidate you vote for. Nothing will change either way.

 

[irishScott]

Given that I could plug that money into any given lobbyist group and probably have more impact than voting, sure.

 

[Nebor]

I'd take the $1,000.

This poll is a damning indictment of how little people believe in our democracy though.

 

[Ruptga]

I'd take the $1,000.

This poll is a damning indictment of how little people believe in our democracy though.

People around here, at least. I think we tend to be more cynical than the average.

 

[irishScott]

I'd take the $1,000.

This poll is a damning indictment of how little people believe in our democracy though.

Our democracy gets the broad strokes right, the devil is in the details.

 

[NutBucket]

Around here cynicism may rule but pure ignorance rules the general public. That's scary....

 

[SparkyJJO]

I would if it was legal, since I live in CA, I could give some of that money to candidates to be spent in other states, where it would make a lot more difference than my vote.

I would prefer you keep your garbage CA politics in CA. We don't need that crap here. So another reason why not to buy out voters.

 

[Bateluer]

No, absolutely not. The system may be corrupt and half broken, but sacrificing your right to actually effect and change that system for the sake of a few bucks today is idiotic.

 

[ultimatebob]

Sure, why not? I live in a solid "blue" state anyway, so it's not like my vote really matters in the slightest. The Demorat is going to win anyway, and then he's going to raise my taxes again.

(And, yeah, I know that if everyone who felt the same way suddenly decided to vote one day it might actually make a difference. But they won't. So there )

 

[motsm]

I don't think I've ever really wanted to vote for somebody. It's always, "Well, they might be the lesser of two evils?". So sure, sign me up.

 

[cbrunny]

Man, you guys need Parliament.