I didn't vote. Is it horrible?

I think it better to not vote than to make an uninformed vote. I think you did the right thing.

It’s not horrible. A lot of people had no idea.

Is what horrible?

If you have an opinion, and you are just to lazy to vote, that is bad. But if you genuinely feel like you weren’t sure who represented you, or just didn’t think either candidate represented your views, then its okay not to vote, or if you really feel like you can not make an informed decision that’s okay too i suppose. However, there is a lot of information out there that you can get on the candidates so its just a matter of informing yourself and knowing where to get the info. Maybe you do not like the candidates, but just learning about what party they represent and the things that party typically supports might help you, since the person you vote for will most likely fall in line with the political party they belong to. Of course if you disagree with the entire system in general, it is okay not to vote in that case too.

Like @chyna, I think it’s far more responsible to not vote, if you are not informed. Just guessing? Never a good idea.

If you are interested, educate yourself now on the party platforms, not just during election times. Then start studying the candidates, when it’s closer to campaign times. Don’t just rely on 30 second commercials, like my neighbors.

It’s not terrible, at all

I agree with the above responses (it isn’t terrible), HOWEVER, in not voting, you also gave up your right to complain about things (my opinion). If you take the time to become informed (as described above), then you may develop opinions that may be worth listening to (at least they will be informed). I would also encourage you to listen to what both sides are saying on ANY given topic before buying in to the spin and misinformation that swirls around us from all sources.

The folks who yank my chain are the ones with very strong opinions on topics about which they know nothing and can’t be bothered to learn more AND who do not vote to make anything be different.

@Kayak8 I agree.

Do what I do, vote twice next time.

Actually, the more I think about it, the happier I am that the strongly opinionated, uninformed citizenry do NOT vote. I am often perplexed by the laws passed by the idiots such individuals elect . . .

What was the vote for?

But I usually go with don’t vote if I don’t know. Some of the obscure bond measures are really hard to figure out. And lots of time they are intentionally misleading. I figure not voting is better than making the wrong vote.

voting?

CA had a special election today for 6 ballot measures…mostly budget related.

I have strong opinions and I vote. This election had a lot of judges. I had no idea who any of them were, but I looked at who they got endorsements from, and made a decision that way. There’s always a way to gather the information you need to feel comfortable with a choice.

Nah, don’t vote if you don’t know. it’s cool.
If you do, vote! or I will cut you.

:)

tinyfaery, you’re a bad bad bad bad bad bad person! Shame!

Im so disappointed in you.

If you come to the logical conclusion that you are not informed well enough to make an educated decision, I respect that.

There’s nothing wrong with not voting for the reason you said.

It’s totally okay that you didn’t vote for the reason you stated. I can respect that choice.

Looking back, I shouldn’t have voted at all. McCain lost miserably and I was upset. Sitting in line for 1.5 hours listening to college students praising St. Obama sucked. My vote didn’t matter in and it Wasn’t worth it. Everyone knew he was going to win. :P

@seekingwolf

I had the same thing with two elections for “Dubya” so I guess it all evens out. LOL

I was all set to vote for my State worker paycheck by sucking up to Arnold and voting “yes” today. When it came down to it, I couldn’t take the side of either of the scumbags that were battling it out for a piece of my check. I stayed at work to meet deadlines (since we are drastically understaffed), instead of whoring myself out like that. I’m likely to take another 5% pay cut (to add to my 10% cut) because of it.

@ru2bz46
Now THAT is a good reason not to vote! As a state employee in another state, I understand how pesky Governors and other scumbags can be!

Thanks @Kayak8. I’m so fed up with California politicians. I’d leave this state if it didn’t have so much to offer.

No problem with not voting. But that means you can’t complain now.

It was a lose-lose vote. If the props pass, I might not take another 5% cut (or I might), but my taxes go up. If they fail, I most likely get another pay cut. It doesn’t really matter, and I will suck it up and find a way to keep living as best I can. My complaining is about the lack of a real choice in the first place.

@filmfann
LOL

If you did not vote then do not bitch about the outcome. Vote the next time and then bitch about everything.

I consider myself an informed voter. I read the voter book and searched a few sites, but I was just so overwhelmed by complete helplessness. I do usually vote. But I feel like this oh so “special” election was going to bite us all in the ass, either way.

Thanks. I don’t feel so bad now.

@astrochuck Pssfft!!

@tinyfaery – I doubt you were the only one that had that same feeling. There was an unusual amount of pressure during this election, people really were emotionally involved and it just dominated everything for months and months.

If you don’t think you knew enough about the candidates then its best that you didn’t vote.. too many people vote for the wrong reasons. On the other hand, if you didn’t vote don’t complain about a decision you don’t like.

The way I see it your choice is- Pol Pot or Hitler, Stalin or Mussilini…..

@Garebo- Those people weren’t on the ballot, Silly.

@AstroChuck – Haven’t you heard of write-in candidates?

It isn’t clear if you didn’t vote because you didn’t know enough to do so {and I think that becoming informed and voting is your responsibility as a citizen} or you didn’t vote because you thought {after going into it in some depth} that the choices were not acceptable to you.

Obviously, from what I have said, I think you should vote—and learn what you need to beforehand so you can make good choices. But if the choices are all bad, and you know what they are and you disapprove, then you should still vote, but not for any of those candidates. Take the time to do it, and write someone in.

I just think that voting is one of those things that we (living in a democracy) need to do.

If I’m understanding this correctly, you’re talking about a very recent ‘special’ vote for ballot initiatives regarding your state’s budget, and not a vote for any candidates, correct? You did a little research, and still felt unqualified to make a decision. In that case, I think it’s perfectly understandable.

In a major vote for candidates that will run our lives for any amount of time, I think it is our responsibility to become informed and vote, vote, vote!

Voteing is just a controling measure to make the average joe feel like they have a say in what’s going on. We don’t have a say. Voteing is a fake illusion to mislead you into thinking this country is a democracy . It is not. It’s a socialist country ran by a comunist style gouverment running a puppet “democratic” figuir head gouverment. The only reason this is called a democracy is so. That we the people do not do not revolt . It will happen again. This country was built on revalution. It’s how we actualy change things . This whole ” change ” Obama thing is just another form of propoganda that the real gouverment is feeding us to slow down the inevabilaty of another revolution. But no one listens to kids like me. Unfortunatly this country has another problem and it’s not takeing action untell things get bad enouph. And so they will first econamy crash then civil war the. We will change things

@covedude if you want to throw a revolution, please work on your grammar and spelling first. and second, you clearly have no idea what a communist government is like or what socialism is. because i see neither here in the states. And you are mistaken, voting is a way to give the government, or party in power the legitimacy to rule. And just so you know, Socialist countries DO have elections too, and are democratic. In fact everything you said is wrong, except the part where you say no one listens to kids like you.

@augustlan Yes, the special election was for a series of budget reform propositions. Apparently, there were a few state representatives thrown on there, too. There were fewer than 4 million voters in a state of over 35 million who bothered to vote.

The results of the election was a resounding “No” on all the tax-increasing props, and a resounding “Yes” on the one that would deny the legislature to give themselves raises in years with a budget deficit (which in California, is most years). At least we’re not Michigan!

I think a big problem with democracy is that there are too many uninformed people voting.

Talking about yesterday’s election, you in effect voted NO! That put you in the 2/3+ majority. We told the legislature that they had to man up and face the problems they have been sweeping under the rug for 30 years. We were not going to borrow against future earnings to pay yesterday’s bills. We are not going take funding from already underfunded children’s and mental health programs to pay corporate welfare. California is about to sink to the level of an underdeveloped country in its education and emergency services because a minority (1/3) prevents fair taxation.

For those of you in the other states, you need to pay attention. What comes to California first, eventually goes everywhere.

@galileogirl If I were to go out and vote the way I wanted the results to go, assuming no poitical games were being played as they were in this election, I would have voted the same as the results ended up. I just couldn’t bring myself to “pull the lever” for either side that was playing the game this cycle.

Some would say if you didn’t vote, you have no right to complain. But not me! It’s a free country, and the right to vote includes the right not to.

Also a comunism is the people coming together and trying to create a gouverment that creates every man equal ( I probley should have said dictatorship) be a socialism is a gouverment that takes control of all the finantual interests ie. The banks and corperations which is what is happening right now as we speak I think mabie you should go to school

Does anyone else see the humor in that ^ ?

Oh I am sorry covedude, but I do have an education, in fact I study political science at the Ohio State University, ranked 4th in the world, and ranked top 20 in every other poll taken in regards to their political science programs. So, I do believe I know what I am talking about. so… eat that, as you would say.

Yes, @syz, we see it. Lol!

Um.. communism is a type of government, socialsim is an economic system. They do not inherently go together. You can have a social demoocracy (France) and a capitlaist communist state (China).

@syz you mean like “ha ha” sad?

Yep, pretty much.

You took political science and you still think this country is a democracy? Hmm wonder what they teach you in Ohio these days.

I have an education as well my freind I live in California and I’m a declared majour in film and television productions.

Then maybe you should stop listening to Fox news and Rush Limbaugh, I have no idea what your definition of a democracy is, but it certainly is not correct if you think the United States is not a democracy. I would be interested in knowing what countries you DO think are democracies, if the US is not one of them.

I think your education is obviusly not worth much.

I do not watch American news

I read

You only know what you have been taught. You have a sqaure mind that’s been tarnished by all the bull this country has been feeding you

@covedude Ignoring for a moment that your spelling is atrocious (seriously dude, what are you 13?) ... You have NO idea what you’re talking about. The US is NOWHERE near socialism… and for that matter you can be a Democracy and be socialistic you idiot… socialism is an economic model, not a governing model.

Neither perfect capitalism nor perfect socialism will work. Too much capitalism and you get the great depression, too much socialism and you get the USSR… The trick is finding a happy medium, and being able to change it to lean one way or the other as the moment needs… which is what we have. It’s leaning a BIT towards socialism now, but it’s not even close to an actual socialist situation.

The things that hardcore right wingers are calling socialism, are things that we had through the entire Clinton era (you know, that period of unprecedented US economic growth and national debt dropping?).

They are calling the top tax bracket socialistic cuz it’s in the 30%‘s (the Obama proposal is).... Well in the 1950s the top bracket was in the 90%‘s… and it was the best economic growth our country has ever seen (and under a Republican conservative President mind you).

The banks were ORIGINALLY controlled by the national government, and have been controlled by the government multiple times in our history in order to re-orient the economy and keep them from collapsing (see the great depression and the new deal).

If you’re actually in school (which I highly doubt any school would take you with spelling skills like that) ... then your degree isn’t going to be worth the paper its printed on.

covedude you have no idea what you are talking about. You must think im some mindless drone who accepts everything I am told. Maybe thats the only way you can convince yourself that your viewpoint is right, by illogically discrediting mine. At least I can back my stuff up with logical points and credible info as opposed to you just saying my education is worthless, or implying that I don’t have one.

@covedude – This is a battle of wits, and you seem to be unarmed.

Since when did I say a socialist governent ?? I said a socialist country. My whole point to this was voteing does not matter.. I have an opinion like everybody else. I am not held down by what books and schools teach you. No one knows what exacly is going on with the governent in this country and if you pretend you do you are a mindless drone. Do you think this country is great??? Then you have obviusly never been anywere else

China is a comunist country and the safest place on earth

You are safer walking down the street in bejieng than you are walking down the street in california

@covedude ...... Wow dude… wow.

If you don’t think voting matters, then you don’t understand democracy… what 3rd world dictatorship are you from? It would explain your poor spelling. .... and china the safest place on earth? ..... Are you retarded? .... I don’t even know where to begin tearing that apart.

We in the USA enjoy a combination of freedoms, quality of life, and other qualities that are unparalleled in the world….

I actually have a Criminology Minor, since you seem to be claiming we are an unsafe country…. The US has the highest incarceration rate sure… but that’s prone to happening with democratic countries that grant their peoples freedoms… something China puts strict limits on (heck Christianity is technically illegal in China)... But speaking strictly on crime rates, they’re actually almost the same.

I am still confused on what the difference is between a socialist government and a socialist country. if he is implying that the united states goverment is forcing capitalism onto its people who desire to be socialist, then that is wrong too.

I mean yah you’re perfectly safe walking down a street in Beijing… So long as you’re not hit by an earthquake, cripple by some moderate disease that the healthcare can’t handle, want to have more than one child, don’t openly worship an illegal religion, don’t attempt to speak badly of the government, etc…...

But yah…. perfectly safe.

(i’d trade in a bit of safety for freedom)

LOL yea you waist money on throwing people in jail for crimes that are her minior

@covedude yah, we tend to not brutally torture or execute them for those minor crimes :)

You call this freedom but for every person that’s ” free ” in this country there is another person on this planet being oppressed at the cost if your freedom

You do torcher actualy

@covedude Riiiigggghhhhhttttttttt

I’ll make no claim that the US is by any means perfect…. But we are hardly oppressing people at all. In fact our mere existence has kept millions/billions of people from being oppressed (see WW2). ... Heck even the Iraq war, you may not agree with it (and most here don’t even)... but you can’t deny we just freed a nation from an oppressive regime.

It’s spelled “torture” btw…. and not anymore we don’t, Bush and his cronies are out of office and will hopefully be punished for having tortured.

Besides, you wanna talk about torture…. Us waterboarding 3 guys, even as many times as they did….. PALES in comparison to some of the torture China has done.

[mod says] Let’s keep the debate civil, please.

augustlan Lets keep your face civil!!!! ...... lol, j/k.. nothing but love :)

haha you still haven’t named any democracies yet covedude

LOL WWII?? The united states killed more inocent people bombing Germany than Hitler killed Jews. And that’s not even counting all the inocent people that where killed when you bombed japan

you seem to not grasp the concept of total war either.

USA goverments are the biggest war criminals on earth

There you go with the we are justified attitude

well you seem to forget that every country in WWII carpet bombed. Maybe the united states should of been the bigger country and not carpet bombed berlin, you are right. how could i be so naive! Thanks!

@covedude ............................. And now you have false info on the field….

The NAZI’s killed some 11 million people in the concentration camps alone, let alone on the battlefield.

US bombing didn’t even break 1 million kills….. And the bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as terrible as they were, also didn’t come near the million mark…. And in fact they probably saved millions of lives by preventing the full scale invasion of the Japanese mainland that was being planned.

Even AFTER the first atom bomb was dropped, Japan wasn’t going to surrender. It wasn’t til after the second one that they RELUCTANTLY surrendered (in fact there was a failed military coup to take control of Japan from the emperor and NOT surrender even after both bombs had been dropped).... So quite frankly, go to hell.

It would be interesting to know a little background about covedude, such as where he/she is from and what educational status he/she has attained. Also, why covedude is so bound and determined to denigrate America and Americans.

Also why each of covedude’s sentences are in a separate comment box.

You get Attacked by “terrorists” and the world is still hering about it. More people were killed during genocide that month in Africa September 11 than that of the towers but you never heard about it on the news

@Darwin $20 he’s from Asia…. $10 that he’s from China

Ironic that he’s here in America taking advantage of some opportunity, and yet he’s putting us down at the same time.

Yeah I guess the United States doesnt police the world ENOUGH. maybe YOUR country should have done something about the atrocities in africa.

@westy81585 – As long as he isn’t getting a pilot’s license.

@covedude Ya know you’re right, genocide in Africa is terrible. But there’s only so much we can do. We’re not world police. In fact you were complaining earlier about our Imperialism… What do you think the world reaction would be if we put 100k more troops into Africa to end that genocide? ... And for that matter, you were talking up China a moment ago, well you can go ahead and thank them for supporting the Genocidal government you just mentioned (in fact they and Russia are the only reason the UN hasn’t already stepped in, their big VETO power).

And westy look it up on wiki r somthong because I am not wrong. USA military killed more inocent people bombing in ww2 than Hitler killed Jews that’s true

Wait. I’m confused. It’s good that I didn’t vote? Or was it horrible?

lol i know tiny, way off track! if you are like covedude, then I’d say its great that you didn’t vote! but we def need your vote to cancel his if hes even able to vote in this country :D

@tinyfaery – It was your choice. In some countries you could be arrested for not voting, or for voting the wrong way. But here, it is up to you whether you want to vote or not.

Well USA has never had problems going against UN before why won’t they do it for Africa ??

You mindless drones lmao. Keep voteing

See where it gets you

@covedude Please try to condense your comments into one answer. You have about 5 minutes to edit an answer if you think of something to add. Thanks.

In 10 years mark my words here your pathetic excuse of a country is going to be a mess

@covedude http://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=55 ..... I’m a bit too lazy to add it all up, but it looks like the avg is about 15,000 deaths per a few months of bombing… Which wasn’t remotely close to continuous…. For the US to have killed 1 million people They would have had to do 122 continuous months of bombing on cities (if we’re not counting the nukes).

I say again the NAZI’s killed ELEVEN MILLION in the concentration camps alone.

Since I’m assuming your math is as bad as your spelling I’ll point out for you that

11 million > 1 million (which isn’t even the right number).

Your not even going to be able to afford to keep jailing your comunity anymore

@covedude Dude if you hate our country so much why don’t you go back to yours.

Our voting has given us president Obama, who is already well on his way to making this nation a better place.

In ten years you’ll still be living here because you’ll be enjoying the better quality of life that we have over your home country, and we won’t have deported you because my fellow liberals will have mercy on you after your green card expires.

I don’t think they killed that many in camps but I could be wrong

Guys – He’s not listening. Don’t waste your breath, or your Fluthering. Besides he may be drunk as well as irritating.

you are wrong. like i said, get an education dude. 11m killed by nazi death camps. the only people who deny that is Iran and other racist idiots.

Bored now.

Clicking stop following on my own question now. :(

My home country is Canada the only reason I’m here is for school because it offers film productions. Canada has free healthcare and you don’t get thrown in jail for reduculas things

I don’t think I’ll be here LOL

If you’re from Canada you better hope we don’t collapse in the next 10 years… what do you think will happen to our hat if that happens?

I’m gonna stop following this now…. Go get an education, you SERIOUSLY need one. Oh and enjoy the greatest country in the world while you’re here :) .

LOL USA is way more racist than Iran

@covedude “USA is way more racist than Iran”

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

And you’re officially an idiot…. Night all!

USA is not the greatist Canada is hehe

yeah you are not even worth arguing with covedude. your ideas and opinions are so illogical and non sensible that it boggles the mind. It scares me to think that people actually exist that are so uneducated about world issues and basic concepts of politics that you can not even consider the United States a democracy, or don’t know that the Nazis killed 11m people in death camps. you are failing at life. see ya.

@covedude your spelling shows how awesome canadian schools are. kudos, gordy.

And I will enjoy my free health care

:)

[mod says:] Please stop typing a new quip continuously when your previous quip can still be edited (a quip can be edited for 10 min post typing it). Also quips with poor spelling will be removed.

@covedude Je pense que votre mère vous appelle. Il est après votre heure du coucher. bonne nuit.

@covedude If you want people to think your answers are intelligent, it might help to spell the words right at least half of the time.
This country is a Republic, with Democratic principles.

“I am not held down by what books and schools teach you.”

Obviously.

Ahem. covedude has disabled his account.

Yay!