Vote!!

[kork13]

Absentee ballot is in the mail. That means all the politicking doesn't apply to me anymore, right? If only I could filter it all out of daily life from here on out... I'd say that I can't wait for election day for all this to be over, but I have a bad feeling that all of this is gonna continue to drag on for weeks & months while everyone continues to fight, discrediting themselves & our country & our democratic system....

Regardless of your opinions, viewpoints, preferred candidates, or political persuasion (I for one don't want to hear about them) ..... VOTE!!! Whether you're doing it by mail, early voting in person, or waiting until election day to hit the polls, voice your choice.

My contention is that if you don't vote, you have no right to complain about what your elected representatives do or don't do. It's a right & privilege that we enjoy in this country, so if you don't avail yourself of it, don't make the rest of us miserable with your impotent outrage. Go out & shape your country.

Happy voting!

[ua_guy]

I agree on every point!

Unfortunately, I may have to sit this election out, and it's infuriating. I requested my absentee ballot. However, in the same span of time, we found a buyer for our house, and it's closing before election day! The rules in this state stipulate one must be able to claim residence in the state on voting day, which we won't be able to do. And I'd really prefer to vote in this state since it can be a swing state.

We will be in our new house by election day, except THAT state requires you be a resident for at least 30 days, in order to vote. So we're caught in the middle, and, we don't want to do anything that goes against the rules.

[kork13]

Somewhat related... For those married, do you share with your spouse how you vote? Would you be willing to, if asked? Do you openly discuss your voting/political preferences with your spouse?

DW & I don't really talk politics much, besides voicing random opinions periodically. We understand in general/relative terms what eachother think about political topics, but I'm just not really one to discuss it in depth because I simply don't much care. I'm happy to let other people have their opinions, and I'm not interested in trying to change anyone's mind about their political views. But, DW is at least somewhat more vocal than I am about it all than I am. DW hasn't gotten her absentee ballot yet, but when she does, she may or may not strike up a discussion about it. If so, I'm willing to share (with her) how I voted, though I don't expect she'd be surprised.

[kork13]

I agree on every point!

Unfortunately, I may have to sit this election out, and it's infuriating. I requested my absentee ballot. However, in the same span of time, we found a buyer for our house, and it's closing before election day! The rules in this state stipulate one must be able to claim residence in the state on voting day, which we won't be able to do. And I'd really prefer to vote in this state since it can be a swing state.

We will be in our new house by election day, except THAT state requires you be a resident for at least 30 days, in order to vote. So we're caught in the middle, and, we don't want to do anything that goes against the rules.

There's alot of ways to claim, maintain, and establish state residency than simply owning a home there. It might be worth a discussion with your voting commission to get their read on your situation. You may be able to lawfully retain your current residency until you take certain actions to establish residency in your new state. Alternatively, you may be able to take similar actions ahead of moving to the new state & establish residency sooner than you think, in order to meet the 30-day requirement in the new state (albeit not the "swing state").

[bjl584]

I'll be voting in person on election day

[cypher1]

[ My contention is that if you don't vote, you have no right to complain about what your elected representatives do or don't do. It's a right & privilege that we enjoy in this country, so if you don't avail yourself of it, don't make the rest of us miserable with your impotent outrage. Go out & shape your country.

Overall I agree, but I gave up explaining that argument to others around me. I don't mind a discussion of disagreement, but give up when I'm immediately labeled something negative for having a different opinion than simply doesn't go along with their ideology.

As for the marriage/relationships of voting, I personally wouldn't care if my SO voted for someone else I didn't agree with. With previous relationships, I'd never hear the end of it if she found out I voted someone outside of her political stance. In fact, with the last general election, my dad admitted he only voted for the same candidate my mom choose, so she wouldn't give him crap about it later. Which I'll admit I was disappointed to hear, as we both strongly believed in never voting for even the lesser evil that goes against our values. Pick and choose your battles.

[rennigade]

My contention is that if you don't vote, you have no right to complain about what your elected representatives do or don't do. It's a right & privilege that we enjoy in this country, so if you don't avail yourself of it, don't make the rest of us miserable with your impotent outrage. Go out & shape your country.

Think of everything you havent done in your life. Do you ever complain about those things or form an opinion on them? By your logic, you shouldnt have any input on those things.

[ua_guy]

On being married and voting, my husband and I discuss politics. Our views tend to be similar, we generally vote for the same things, and sometimes fill out our ballots together. We have been doing "mail-in" voting for more than 20 years. I coudn't be at odds with my spouse in the context of "modern politics". These days it's not about differences of opinion, it's more often about difference in how one seeks truth. And politics involve intimately held opinions so I also couldn't see myself with someone who was apolitical or didn't want to discuss their political views.

[kork13]

Think of everything you havent done in your life. Do you ever complain about those things or form an opinion on them? By your logic, you shouldnt have any input on those things.

I see what you're saying, but I think the difference is that with most of those things that you might want to voice am opinion about, you haven't had the opportunity to speak into it. This is not the case with politics -- voting (and directly communicating with your representatives) is your opportunity to have input on the country's politics. I see it as little different than complaining about what's happening in your kid's school but you won't participate in the PTA or town hall meetings with the school district... Or on an extreme scale, someone walking out on their family, then being upset about how the kids are getting raised. Take the opportunity to have input on something when you have the chance. Otherwise, you simply don't have the moral authority to make a fuss about something when you could have weighed in on but chose not to.

[disneysteve]

Somewhat related... For those married, do you share with your spouse how you vote?

Absolutely! I can't imagine being married to someone who had opposite views from me on vital topics like health care, equality/racism/civil rights, reproductive rights, gun control, etc. I do what I can to fight against people like that. Why would I want to marry one?

As for voting, we have voted by mail in every single election for the past 20 years. We will vote by "mail" this time as well however I do plan to either drop the ballots in a collection box or hand deliver them to the office rather than actually mailing them this time. Sadly, thanks to this administration's meddling with the USPS, I don't have confidence that mail will be delivered in a timely manner, if at all, and I want to be sure our votes are counted (even though we live in a state where it isn't likely to matter).

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I vote but I wonder why? I mean I am a bit disappointed that we have the electoral college. If you want to truly make it fair to the rest of the US you would make the electoral college proportionate. I mean it's ridiculous. If you are in a non-swing state then your vote doesn't matter either way. So why bother other than maybe there is a senate race in your state?

I have never lived where my vote matters. I has been written it's really unfair that depending on where you live your vote is 2/3 of a vote and other people like say florida or ohio their votes at 1.6 value per vote. WOW. amazing the power people get by where they live instead of all of us being created equal. I vote so I can't complain. I vote so that I can say I did and bitch with all my neighbors about how what we think or feel DOESN"T matter. I didn't vote for Hillary because I was pissed. I voted for Jill Stein. I'm still pissed that I voted for Bernie and felt like the democratic party rigged it for hillary. that being said I still feel like it's crazy you can have a person lose the popular vote by 3 million and be president. How is that fair? How is that the will of the people? Obviously not because the will would say by popular vote or by proportional vote of the electoral college great.

But instead we basically have a system rewarding only people who live in certain states that matter. Otherwise your vote be it conservative or liberal doesn't matter. And I do know how DH and I vote. We wouldn't be married if we didn't agree. I think the discussions would get too heated otherwise.

Right now it's a rough time in my family. I can't stand my mom and her trump support. Still got republican friends and family who can't stand trump. Lots of family members are smaller government and less taxes. But the absurdity that is trump. He's embarrassing. Not to mention I wonder if I'm becoming more fiscally conservative as I age. I Can't believe we keep running up the deficit, spending like crazy, and lowering taxes. Seems insane.

[kork13]

LAL, I agree with you to an extent... But if it was strictly a popular vote, the elections would always be decided by the large population centers that represent huge numbers of people, but a very small fraction of the states & varied interests that exist in the country.

I'd be happy if we could just reform the electoral college to eliminate the state-by-state winner-take-all, and instead go to a state-by-state proportional allocation of electors.

[cypher1]

I'd be happy if we could just reform the electoral college to eliminate the state-by-state winner-take-all, and instead go to a state-by-state proportional allocation of electors.

You beat me to it on eliminating super delegates, or making them select who their actual constituents vote for (which still blows my mind why the DNC doesn't do). Or if electoral college is out, go with ranked choice voting, which would encourage more 3rd party opportunity.

[disneysteve]

I have never lived where my vote matters.

And that's an incredibly sad and disturbing comment, but also very true. It shouldn't be that way. Everyone's vote should matter.

In the 2016 election about 100,000,000 Americans didn't vote. Why? I'm sure there are a bunch of reasons, but the perception that your vote doesn't matter is probably a biggie. If you're a Democrat in Wyoming or Utah or Oklahoma, there's not much point in you bothering to go to the polls. If you're a Republican in California or Hawaii or Vermont, the same is true for you. It really doesn't matter if you vote or not under the current system.

Rather than always complaining about how many people don't vote, maybe we should start focusing on why they don't vote. Millions of them have an extremely valid reason - their votes truly don't matter.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

LAL, I agree with you to an extent... But if it was strictly a popular vote, the elections would always be decided by the large population centers that represent huge numbers of people, but a very small fraction of the states & varied interests that exist in the country.

I'd be happy if we could just reform the electoral college to eliminate the state-by-state winner-take-all, and instead go to a state-by-state proportional allocation of electors.

Why is it wrong for a presidential election to be decided by urban centers? I can live with the proportionate electoral votes, but why is it wrong if 3 million more people liked hillary she could have won? Why is it unfair for people living in a city to be worth less than those living in the country? Isn't it at the end of the day all equal? One vote = one person? Why is it imperative that those living in smaller states or rural have a greater say?

I am seriously curious and I want to understand why can't my vote in the suburbs of a big city be equal to say Steve's vote in PA? It's not. Or UA_Guy's vote in a swing state. Their votes matter. They live in the cities or burbs. But even in every state I've lived why does the rural vote have to be worth more?

Right NOW cities in each swing state play a huge role. Cities are where the democrats are trying to turn out minorities and young people to vote to overturn the rural vote to winner take all for a state. But if each vote was equal and the electoral votes proportinately split then Trump and Biden would have to campaign in California or New York or Texas. They would have to see if they could get 50% of the votes in each of those states.

I have NEVER seen an ad for president. I don't even know what it looks like. I'm 41 years old and I've never seen an presidential ad. Why? Because they don't waste money advertising in any of the states I live in. I KNOW there are ads. I know there are people knocking. I know there are visits or rallies. I've never seen one. So i'm part of the what 75% of the country ignored. Our votes and voices are silent. We are in the minority/majority depending on our feelings and where we live. We are "unnecessary" and that is the truth. The majority of the US lives in places that probably never see ads for elections because it's a waste of money.

It'd be nice to be heard and respected. But instead the voice of the people is crushed because it only matter if you live in a swing state.