Go vote, not political, just do it.

Appleseed said:

Huge thanks to whom ever informed me about the League of Women Voters Web site.  Their Web site tailored the choices to my state, district, etc... They had all the applicable candidates and their positions. This might be the most informed I've ever been.

+1 for every election cycle.  They have been doing this service for many years- starting with an insert in the local paper.  I really like how they do it.

My work gave us the entire day off to go and vote. I got up early, finalized my research on candidates and proposals and voted. Spent the rest of the day pulling the engine out of our fairly low mileage but very leaky Subaru. I think voting was more fun. 

RealMiniNoMore said:

I'll be voting after work, but.... 

I hate... that if I vote for an alternative candidate, I am only helping one of the candidates that I do not support.

NO.  You are NOT "only helping one of the candidates you do not support".  YOU ARE VOTING YOUR CONSCIENCE.

As long as this attitude prevents people from voting third party, third parties will never have a chance to win.  Look at it this way - if your third party candidate doesn't win, are you any less represented than you will be if you disapprove of both major candidates?

I haven't voted yet, but I will within the hour.  I'm voting for a third party senator who will not win.  She is still my best choice.  I radically dislike both of my congressional choices, so I am withholding my vote for that seat.  I will not vote against my conscience, even though I've hardly ever voted for a winning candidate in my entire adult life.

RealMiniNoMore said:

I'll be voting after work, but.... 

I hate voting.  I hate deciding between two people that do not represent me.  I hate that two parties hold a tyrannical grip on our country and that if I vote for an alternative candidate, I am only helping one of the candidates that I do not support.  I hate that no matter how I voted today, I am still not represented in government.  I hate that one candidate(s) is/are trying to demonize my friends and the other candidate(s) is/are telling my friends that I am the demon.  I hate that I fall victim at times to the rhetoric of politicians.  I hate that the news is telling me that life itself depends on how and if I vote, and that every news channel is telling me it is for a different reason.  I hate that I have to guard what I speak about with some of my best friends and family members for the risk of creating a rift because the political system condemns alternate opinions that are contrary to the two official parties.

I love my family.  I love my friends.  That is all that matters to me and I hope that on this annoying day we can all remember why we are friends and why we love each other and that there is nothing that these so called leaders can do to change that.

Here's the thing... it's never going to end.  

I'm sure people think that the discourse we are hearing now is new, and had devolved into a terrible situation.

It's not new, not at all.

Thanks to some recent trips and the musical Hamilton, I've done my fair share of reading history recently- back when this country was founded, the kind of discourse you hear now was quite common, including having news outlets that were owned and written by politicians.  When you read some of the things our founding fathers said about each other- it's kind of embarrassing.  Remember- it managed to get so bad that there were actual duals where people died (such as Alexander Hamilton).  

Later, in the history of this country, it got so bad that there was an actual fighting war over the ideas.  A war that is still the one were the most American's died in battle.

So what we need to do is accept other ideas.  And not demonize people for what they think (mostly- I'm not tolerating people who think other people are less than them just because who they are).

Duke said:

RealMiniNoMore said:

I'll be voting after work, but.... 

I hate... that if I vote for an alternative candidate, I am only helping one of the candidates that I do not support.

NO.  You NOT "only helping one of the candidates you do not support".  YOU ARE VOTING YOUR CONSCIENCE.

As long as this attitude prevents people from voting third party, third parties will never have a chance to win.  Look at it this way - if your third party candidate doesn't win, are you any less represented than you will be if you disapprove of both major candidates?

I haven't voted yet, but I will within the hour.  I'm voting for a third party senator who will not win.  She is still my best choice.  I radically dislike both of my congressional choices, so I am withholding my vote for that seat.  I will not vote against my conscience, even though I've hardly ever voted for a winning candidate in my entire adult life.

It sounds like you should be advocating for proportional representation so that voting for a 3rd party would actually be worth something.

NOHOME said:

Can we get a single person to say that this thread made a difference and that they went out and cast  ballot when they did not plan on it?

Common, SOMEONE validate the thread!

Oh, is that today??

BRB...

Ovid_and_Flem said:

Joys of living in small community... park right at the front door, walked in, show the ID, received ballot, filled out, took to reader, got my voting sticker and was back in my car in less than 3 minutes. Races up for grabs were house seat, two Senate position since we had special election for a midterm retired senator, 8 local judge positions 7 of which were uncontested. Done

Joys of voting in an even smaller community, 

Greeted everyone at the polling place. Joked about number Of times I would vote.  Signed my name, walked to the booth and filled out the ballot.  

Left

Returned later to transport someone else to the polls, joked about getting a second I voted stamp while she voted.  

Will probably transport a few other voters again tonight.  

red_stapler said:

Duke said:

RealMiniNoMore said:

I'll be voting after work, but.... 

I hate... that if I vote for an alternative candidate, I am only helping one of the candidates that I do not support.

NO.  You NOT "only helping one of the candidates you do not support".  YOU ARE VOTING YOUR CONSCIENCE.

As long as this attitude prevents people from voting third party, third parties will never have a chance to win.  Look at it this way - if your third party candidate doesn't win, are you any less represented than you will be if you disapprove of both major candidates?

I haven't voted yet, but I will within the hour.  I'm voting for a third party senator who will not win.  She is still my best choice.  I radically dislike both of my congressional choices, so I am withholding my vote for that seat.  I will not vote against my conscience, even though I've hardly ever voted for a winning candidate in my entire adult life.

It sounds like you should be advocating for proportional representation so that voting for a 3rd party would actually be worth something.

Minnesota voted a third party candidate for Governor Jessie Ventura

MA rolled out early voting on a mass scale a few elections back, and I have to tell you, it RULES! The wife and I were in and out of there in about 5 minutes total this time around. No hassle, no BS, and no campaign trolls hanging around outside the polling station. If your state or community does this, I highly recommend it. 

I'm curious, has anyone seen any issues with voting so far? 

Especially those in say...Georgia? 

RevRico said:

If you don’t vote you are not allowed to complain

That's such bullE36 M3. A vote for none of the above is still a vote.

Forcing me to choose between worthless scumbags who aren't qualified to pick up after my dog is not giving me a choice, voice, or vote. 

It's like going to a physical and having your choice of doctor be Andre the Giant or an 800lb gorilla when it comes time for the prostate check.

Vote local issues. 90% of what affects you is local. 

Good thing is you can go over to the candidates house and talk man to man ( or woman ) about what bothers you and how you’d like it fixed. 

Dont like either candidate? Run yourself. It cost me $2 to file to be mayor and even though I came in second I got what I really wanted. 

I had no political experience, political parties aren’t part of local politics. You may have to speak at a League of Women voters meeting or some other civic organization about what you want but that’s about it.  

I had two supporters who bought me yard signs so aside from the $2 it cost me a few hours.  

red_stapler said:

Duke said:

RealMiniNoMore said:

I'll be voting after work, but.... 

I hate... that if I vote for an alternative candidate, I am only helping one of the candidates that I do not support.

NO.  You NOT "only helping one of the candidates you do not support".  YOU ARE VOTING YOUR CONSCIENCE.

As long as this attitude prevents people from voting third party, third parties will never have a chance to win.  Look at it this way - if your third party candidate doesn't win, are you any less represented than you will be if you disapprove of both major candidates?

I haven't voted yet, but I will within the hour.  I'm voting for a third party senator who will not win.  She is still my best choice.  I radically dislike both of my congressional choices, so I am withholding my vote for that seat.  I will not vote against my conscience, even though I've hardly ever voted for a winning candidate in my entire adult life.

It sounds like you should be advocating for proportional representation so that voting for a 3rd party would actually be worth something.

Might I remind you Lincoln was a third party candidate. 

frenchyd said:

Might I remind you Lincoln was a third party candidate. 

3rd parties are still only batting .022 for president.

I'd much rather have 10 senators from each state with the seats distributed based on the % of votes for each party.  Then you only need 10% of the vote to have a representative in congress.

RevRico said:

If you don’t vote you are not allowed to complain

That's such bullE36 M3. A vote for none of the above is still a vote.

Forcing me to choose between worthless scumbags who aren't qualified to pick up after my dog is not giving me a choice, voice, or vote. 

It's like going to a physical and having your choice of doctor be Andre the Giant or an 800lb gorilla when it comes time for the prostate check.

Then write in another candidate or Mickey Mouse or my hairy cod, whichever makes you the angriest since based on many of your posts, you seem to be permanently angry about nearly everything.  Good grief man, you're going to die young if you keep this up.

Many people died for your right to vote.  Don't like the choices?  Write one in, run yourself next time or work with some candidates that you WOULD vote for.

Robbie said:

Stampie said:

Remember after the election the signs make great lightweight build material. Our Challenge team has a librarian on it. Political signs aren't allowed on library property but the DAs do it anyway.  More free material for us.

Do you have a glue that can stick to them? I have tons of material but need to find a good way to adhere them...

Doesn't contact cement work for coroplast?

In reply to frenchyd :

Teddy Roosevelt pulled better than 25% of the popular vote in the Bull-Moose party after he got pissed off at Taft. 

Ross Perot and the reform party pulled a noteworthy group of votes at nearly 19%. Had he not gone a bit off the deep end towards the end that likely would have been higher. 

So yea, make a compelling case and third parties are viable I would say. 

The problem today is that Libertarians and Greens go out of their way to put themselves in the most extreme positions. The electorate, by and large, is more center left. 

The current crop of third party candidates have no intention of winning. They're there to highliht specific positions and try to influence the conversation.

Woohoo we got 15 signs this evening. 

We were polite and waited until polls closed. One shiny happy person tried to tell me that I was stealing them the people that placed them there. I explained to him that city law stated that political signs placed in the right of way can be removed by any person. I thanked him and proceeded to pull signs. 

Little observations, the Democrats were liberal with their signs and the Republicans cheeped out on there's. I left several Republican signs that were cheap paper instead of corrugated plastic. 

So what should I make with my signs?  Splitter? Diffuser?  Think they're strong enough for a wing?

In reply to Stampie :

Probably strong enough to skin a wing if you give 'em enough ribs, right? Maybe? You should be able to poke at 'em, do a little googling and a little cocktail-napkin math and work out how many psi you can expect-ish, and how much unsupported coroplast goes with that?

Voted after work today during the last 1/2 hour my polling place was open. 

I try to vote in every election so I have a say in my government and can bitch about what happens.  I figure if you can't be bothered to vote, you don't deserve to complain about or talk up the outcome. 

I also make a point to loudly thank the poll workers for making America work after I vote and try to let them know that I appreciate their efforts to help us exercise our right and responsibility to participate in our government. I hope they don't think I'm being an obnoxious shiny happy person... 

I voted at the elementary school two blocks down the street around 5pm. When I left the house I noticed a doorknob hanger on my front door from one political party, reminding me to vote.  When I got home 20 minutes later, it was gone and had been replaced with one from the other political party.

I thought it was kind of funny but I don’t think they’re supposed to remove their opponent’s materials like that, at least while the polls are still open.

Polls are closed now, and so is this thread. Thank you to all who voted.