I do vote, and I believe it is irresponsible not to vote.

X

I vote—I’ve had to use an absentee ballot several times though because I was traveling for work.

I almost always vote.

Of course but I would like to add do you vote on all 3 levels?
Of course federal .
Of course Provincial.
And just started in the last few years to vote municipal.

I vote in the elections I’m allowed to. I can only vote in local elections currently. I’m denied a federal vote in the country I currently reside and pay taxes in even though I have lived here for almost 13 years. I do vote by absentee in the Presidential Elections I have citizenship in.

“The Republicans won the house again, and not because they were voted in. It was because too many people didn’t vote.”

Well. Clearly they were voted in, otherwise they wouldn’t have won the house again.

“Winning the house” is pretty much synonymous with “being voted in”.

Are you suggesting that the non-voters are mostly Democrats too lazy to vote for the party that they really support?

What if half of them would have supported the Republicans anyway?

Maybe the Republicans were genuinely more popular, and the voters who turned out are actually an accurate representation of their support.

Voting isn’t really that rational. An individual’s vote makes effectively no difference to the outcome. Yet voting takes some degree of time and effort to do, and even some probability of actual harm—perhaps an accident on the way.

Coupled with the fact that an individual vote makes no realistic difference to the outcome of an election, we also have to consider that government in the US is actually dominated by oligarchic and elite interests regardless of which party is in power.

I did vote (only the second time in 20 years) in the recent UK general election. I voted for a candidate who had no chance. My reasons were the following:

The polling station was literally 2 minutes walk away.

The weather was quite nice.

I was curious to see if there were any changes in the voting process since I first voted in a local election aged 18. It hadn’t. We still use paper and pencil to mark an X.

My vote had a tiny contribution to possibly save the candidate’s deposit. She was 2% short and lost it anyway.

It may well be the last time I ever bother again.

I always vote and everyone I know votes.

I wish I could say the same. When Obama appeared on the scene Rick and I started talking politics. At one point we were in disagreement. Finally I said, “Are you even registered to vote?”
He was not.
I said, “Then why are we even having this discussion!” and refused to get into political arguments until he was.
He went out and go hisself registered ASAP so we could have political arguments.

Always!

Usually. I didn’t until the Gore Bush election. I made sure I registered during that election, because Bush made me so nervous.

If people are apathetic enough to not vote then I’m fine with them not voting.

Voting is the expression of apathy.

A futile exercise deluding one into thinking one is involved in the political process.

Its effect merely cathartic. It’s like when liberals think they’re saving the world by recycling a bit, or buying fair trade coffee. Then they go back to contributing to the consumer society that’s leading to ecological disaster.

A vote, and a smug: “I’ve done my part”.

Hell yes I vote. I believe that if you don’t vote, don’t bitch about the results….because you didn’t try to change them.

One of the few freedoms we have left is decide how much involvement in government you want. I vote but if some one doesn’t know enough or simply doesn’t want to vote, that’s their choice.