Refusing the participate isn’t the same as supporting the opposite of whatever your personal opinion is.
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No wonder people have such difficulty voting! No matter how I put my birthday into this voting location generator I repeatedly got an error alert that the year must be 4 numerical digits. Is 1954 not 4 digits! I have voted in all elections since I was 18. Very happy I voted 2 weeks ago!
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Yes it is. In Va there have been at least two tied elections in the past couple of years. Your vote matters; minus that vote the other team wins. FYI both cases in Va went to Republicans. Just one vote would have made a difference.
44.2% of eligible citizens “refused to participate” in 2016 and look what that got us.
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There are numerous, odious times in history that prove you wrong.
Get the chip off your shoulder, mate. You’ll live a happier and longer life.
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Functionally, if refusing to participate contributes to the victory of the opposite of whatever your personal opinion is, it is.
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I got my ballot sent off in the mail, and then a friend approached me to go knock on doors and urge others to get out the vote…
I suddenly remembered that I am the worst salesman possible when it’s a product I dont believe in. Sure, on the one (two?) day(s) a year that voting is allowed, by all means, knock yourself out. But if you think your duty as a functioning citizen is then discharged with that single act, you are deluding yourself.
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My wife said almost the same thing about herself when we volunteered this weekend to make calls for one of the local campaigns. But the host overheard her talking with someone and made a point of telling her she was really convincing while also being very nice. Don’t sell yourself short!
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I’m trying to hear your words in the spirit in which you mean them, and I suppose that its true: if there were a local candidate that inspired me the way Bernie inspired me two years ago, I’d be all over this election like white on suburbs.
The Kavenaugh confirmation still burns, though, and no voting is goingto reverse that. Tonight when the returns are in, we can re evaluate the battlefield and think about the next two years…
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Good, I think. I mean them to be encouraging.
The calls we made were for a candidate in an adjacent district (ours is a lock) and she knew nothing about the candidate before we read the profile provided by the campaign. But she really got into it after a few calls!
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I like the kind of paper trail we have in California: we mark paper ballots by hand and they are tallied by machine. We keep a tear-off tab with a number associated with the ballot and we can check in afterward to confirm that ballot was counted. In the event of a recount or a suspected tally error the original ballots can simply be counted again, either by hand or by machine.
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Voting is how we prevent the next Kavanaugh confirmation.
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Yeah i’d be ok with this too, i was just left confused that i was given nothing after i voted in TX
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No, it isn’t. I can play the Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck game too.
I am totally within my right to refuse to vote when I feel that candidates have both been caught in mud slinging and lies. For all you know I could have been right-leaning and chose not to vote for Tuck because I disagreed with his dirty campaign.
example of Tuck’s dirty behavior.
example of Thurmond’s dirty behavior.
Not picking a side is not mathematically equivalent to picking the opponent.
Who is to say which way those apathetic voters would have voted?
Now if a significant number of those voters were disenfranchised voters, then I definitely agree there is a serious problem.
But none of that applies to my circumstances or earlier comments, because I did vote in this election. Just not in every race. As is my right.
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Y’know, if you feel strongly enough about not liking either candidate and choose not to vote, that’s your choice. OTOH, if you don’t like the results and you didn’t vote, whinging about it won’t help either.
“If you choose not to decide/ You still have made a choice.” N. Peart
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If refusing to participate accomplishes the same goal as voting for the opposite of whatever your personal opinion is, then it’s functionally the same.
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Damn, this is tight
Latest exit polls…
| Ted Cruz* | Republican | 3,274,227 | 51.2% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beto O’Rourke | Democrat | 3,076,539 | 48.1 |
| Neal Dikeman | Libertarian | 41,615 | 0.7 |
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Refusing to participate is the same as saying “I don’t care how any of the races or ballot measures turn out.”
Which is frankly a fucking childish attitude.
Even in the highly unlikely event that there are two equally bad candidates on your ballot for governor or senator or whatever, that still represents only one part of what is on your local ballot.
I challenge any non-voter to show me a 2018 midterm ballot that includes no races or initiatives or propositions of consequence.
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Nope. I specifically stated I voted in this election, but I did not vote on a contentious issue that I felt was a mess. You’ll have to start over with a proper argument.
Which, the thing you are assuming or what actually happened?
didn’t read the thread, but have strong feelings on the issue? That’s … weird.
I already covered this. I spent quite a bit of time on my ballot, and I already mentioned that I gave judicial nominees above average attention.
Dial your unfocused rage back a bit if you’re not going to bother reading the thread, it’s not to be directed at me needlessly. You’re just noise at this point.
