Just voted for the first time, tonight at 8 I'll be seeing if it makes a difference

[teebeeohh]

my first vote had the German equivalent of a preposition added to it forcing my school to fuse with another one under their leadership. If the thing didn't pass the schools would still have to fuse but under our leadership, so i spend my sunday explaining to retirees and young parents why the should vote no. we won, being ahead only a few hundred votes. THAT felt awesome.

i usually vote on non-federal(State/local) based on matters that seem very important to me. on a federal level i make my ballot invalid so it shows up as invalid, a rather common method a show that you got up to vote but didn't like you options.

and yes, voting is important, if only to show that you disagree with something

 

[dickseverywhere]

hey anyone know when we find out if prop 19 passed btw?

 

[Aulleas123]

In my opinion, regardless of whether or not your candidate wins, you have made a difference by voting. In an idea world, everyone would vote, to yield the most representative results. Obviously that isn't the case, but by contributing to that ideal, I think you've done a good thing

In an ideal world, there would be no need for politics.

Right, in an ideal world, we'd have someone rule us all. Some sort of monarch or dictator. I may be annoyed with the politicking as well but I'd rather have that than the alternate.

"Democracy is the worst form of government, at least of the ones we haven't tried." -Churchill

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Someone once suggested making voting a legal requirement, but bringing in an extra box marked 'no confidence', so you could still show your opinion that you did not want to give you vote to any of the people currently running for the position.

To me, if I was a politician and more than say, 10% of my state voted 'no confidence', I'd sure as hell be getting out there and talking to people to find out why.

It's a desperately sad thing when more people vote for reality TV shows than for the leader of their country.

I honestly think the UK would give the leadership to Simon Cowell if they could.

I also, on a side note, think the Lib Dems should have stayed out and left the Conservatives to roughly fuck every non millionaire in the country for 5 years, then waltz into power with a firm majority afterwards, instead of what's happened, I think the coalition has destroyed any confidence that the Lib Dems had built up over the past, and it's a shame because I think having a genuine third party option made both Labour and Tory parties lives harder.

 

[Crimsane]

Tbh, you don't see the results of your vote on election night. You see the results (or lack thereof) in your candidate's actions when they're actually in office.

 

[S-Unleashed]

It was my first time too. High five!!

 

[hawkeye52]

not yet old enough to vote myself but if i were to vote i would probably vote for the lib dems in england (even though they pretty much sold themselves up the river in some areas at the moment such as tuition fees) and in america just vote anyone other then republican

 

[Nalesnik]

In my opinion, regardless of whether or not your candidate wins, you have made a difference by voting. In an idea world, everyone would vote, to yield the most representative results. Obviously that isn't the case, but by contributing to that ideal, I think you've done a good thing

In an ideal world, there would be no need for politics.

Right, in an ideal world, we'd have someone rule us all. Some sort of monarch or dictator. I may be annoyed with the politicking as well but I'd rather have that than the alternate.

"Democracy is the worst form of government, at least of the ones we haven't tried." -Churchill

Err, no, my line of thinking was more like this: In a ideal world, there would be no need for governments, or any type of authority, because in an ideal world there would be no crime, everyone would donate what they can to support free healthcare, free education, public services, civic projects (like roads) etc..
So yea...

 

[Icarion (aka Stockholm)]

The first time I voted my dad congratulated me and then told me my vote was completely pointless since our state has been democrat for years and will be democrat way past the point of when I'm dead and that our last 3 governors all got caught for being corrupt.
Cookie for guessing what state I live in.

Massachusetts? Are we really that big on corruption? Oh Yeah and I'm too young to vote

 

[Icarion (aka Stockholm)]

In my opinion, regardless of whether or not your candidate wins, you have made a difference by voting. In an idea world, everyone would vote, to yield the most representative results. Obviously that isn't the case, but by contributing to that ideal, I think you've done a good thing

In an ideal world, there would be no need for politics.

Right, in an ideal world, we'd have someone rule us all. Some sort of monarch or dictator. I may be annoyed with the politicking as well but I'd rather have that than the alternate.

"Democracy is the worst form of government, at least of the ones we haven't tried." -Churchill

Err, no, my line of thinking was more like this: In a ideal world, there would be no need for governments, or any type of authority, because in an ideal world there would be no crime, everyone would donate what they can to support free healthcare, free education, public services, civic projects (like roads) etc..
So yea...

I saw your point. And I agree. but until than we need people to go into politics to help clear away the corruption. Fresh faces FTW! (Geuss what I wanna be when I grow up?)

 

[NPC]

In my opinion, regardless of whether or not your candidate wins, you have made a difference by voting. In an idea world, everyone would vote, to yield the most representative results. Obviously that isn't the case, but by contributing to that ideal, I think you've done a good thing

In an ideal world, there would be no need for politics.

Right, in an ideal world, we'd have someone rule us all. Some sort of monarch or dictator. I may be annoyed with the politicking as well but I'd rather have that than the alternate.

"Democracy is the worst form of government, at least of the ones we haven't tried." -Churchill

Err, no, my line of thinking was more like this: In a ideal world, there would be no need for governments, or any type of authority, because in an ideal world there would be no crime, everyone would donate what they can to support free healthcare, free education, public services, civic projects (like roads) etc..
So yea...

Well, in a truly ideal world there would be no need for healthcare because we would all be healthy. Everyone would be born smart. Roads would make themselves and exhaust fumes only made Mr Pibb tastier. ect.

OT I voted for the first time today too! It was exciting!

 

[SpiderHam666]

The first time I voted my dad congratulated me and then told me my vote was completely pointless since our state has been democrat for years and will be democrat way past the point of when I'm dead and that our last 3 governors all got caught for being corrupt.
Cookie for guessing what state I live in.

Really it could be any of them though some i guess you would have to replace the word democrat with republican but still.... they're all corrupt so can i get a cookie for that?

 

[Aulleas123]

In an ideal world, there would be no need for politics.

Right, in an ideal world, we'd have someone rule us all. Some sort of monarch or dictator. I may be annoyed with the politicking as well but I'd rather have that than the alternate.

"Democracy is the worst form of government, at least of the ones we haven't tried." -Churchill

Err, no, my line of thinking was more like this: In a ideal world, there would be no need for governments, or any type of authority, because in an ideal world there would be no crime, everyone would donate what they can to support free healthcare, free education, public services, civic projects (like roads) etc..
So yea...

While this would be nice and I respect those who would be willing to live this lifestyle, I personally don't believe that human nature can be kicked to the curb to allow for such. Think about this, if everything is free then what incentives do people have for putting effort in their work? If education is free, then how would teachers get paid? If they don't get paid then why would anyone become a teacher?

Even if we found a way to pay to pay these teachers through subsidies, who would cover these subsidies and if these subsidies are automatic, then why would teachers work hard to differentiate themselves as being better than other teachers. The same could be said of health care, construction projects, and other jobs that make society tolerable. I personally admire politicians and leaders who respect human nature.

I respect your viewpoint, however I think that it is a very ideal world indeed.

 

[Darzen]

I don't vote...yet.
But congradulations and giving 1 of the millions of votes cast that will probably make litle difference in the long fun.

 

[Tdc2182]

Congratulations. To bad people the common voter nowadays is a stupid ignorant idiot who likes to change his mind every 4 years. Honestly people, We kept Bush in power for 8 years, he did absolutely nothing.

Everyone is bitching about Obama who has made more advances than any president in the past 20 years. I swear to god if Palin wins next election I will rip my own dick off.

Sorry Rant, but seriously. Congratulations. Just remember to always know the issues before you complain about them. It helps America actually choose the right people.

 

[viranimus]

Yes, your vote will have an impact. You just told the state and country that you approve of a completely known and broken system and that your ok with continuing things how they have been.

Its like this, if your going to die at the hands of a mass murderer, who gives you the choice of being repeatedly shot in the extremities until you slowly bleed out from all the wounds, Or to suffer a death of 10,000 little cuts, or being pumelled to death by various blunt objects, or being poisoned by slow acting household chemicals are you actually going to make that choice?

Now, have that choice have to go through an intermediary representative, who is supposed to vote on your behalf to respect your wishes, but legally free to make whatever choice they want. Youve just seen the equivalence and ambivalence that is the american political landscape.

 

[LooK iTz Jinjo]

In Australia voting is mandatory, a good thing really. So yeah I've always voted, though I don't see the point if they are just going to kick out the guy we voted for anyway -.-

 

[BasicMojo]

This is why I don't vote.

 

[Volothos]

Congratulations. To bad people the common voter nowadays is a stupid ignorant idiot who likes to change his mind every 4 years. Honestly people, We kept Bush in power for 8 years, he did absolutely nothing.

Everyone is bitching about Obama who has made more advances than any president in the past 20 years. I swear to god if Palin wins next election I will rip my own dick off.

Sorry Rant, but seriously. Congratulations. Just remember to always know the issues before you complain about them. It helps America actually choose the right people.

I guess during those 8 years we got used to nothing getting done in the white house and the sheer thought of a president doing his job makes us shit our pants.