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The problem with not voting
(fedia.io)
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this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2024
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Agreed, that's why the strategy of voting uncommitted and/or third party is superior.
Except it’s a primary where he’s running against himself basically.
That’s the point. It’s a primary, it’s not the general election. They’re showing up and saying “we’re your voters and you know what our message is.”
Oh I'm 100% behind handing in a blank or Mickey Mouse or something in the primary. What's upsetting is the people who swear up and down they're going to do it in the general.
Doesn't help that the US uses first past the post voting instead of ranked choice. You usually have to pick who you hate least, rather than who you like most.
It does not in the slightest help, no. But it is worth noting that even here you can see differences in the parties - one of them keeps trying to strip voting rights from people, put minimal polling places into high density areas, etc.
I tell our kids to turn in an empty ballot if they don’t want to vote. To at least do that is a minimum.
Counts the same as not voting.
Yeah, that’ll show em.
A little different actually
Not voting at all can mean anything. You like them all, you hate them all, you couldn't care, etc.
Sending in a blank but signed vote means you cared enough to show up and that you didn't pick anyone. Those ballots are counted. Over time, if enough of them start to pile up, the existing parties might change things up to cash in on the pile of votes sitting around. New parties may also form if there's a clearly defined group that isn't being represented.
I'm not pushing for doing this in any particular election. We have users from all over the world here, voting in many different jurisdictions of elections. A blank vote can be an effective strategy in some situations
In the US it’s just a non-vote. No one counts non-votes. Perhaps you live in a country where they do, but not if you’re an American.
I'm in Canada, and I think the term used here is 'rejected ballots' or 'declined ballots'
Some links:
The first article is specifically the effect I described, where people report the number of declined ballots, interview people who chose to do that, and talk about why it might be happening. That has an impact, but the magnitude depends on how prolific it is.
Second link quoted:
I'm not as familiar with the US. My point was a blank ballot can have a different outcome from not showing up, and it can be a valid strategy depending on where you are in the world.
You are talking out of your ass. They know who voted, what party they are affiliated with. They don’t know who voted for who.
You’ll have an original thought some day. Not today of course. But some day.