Elections! Get registered and vote!

[MattSullivan]

Look, I know a LOT of people on this board don't vote, but it really is important. Otherwise, you let other people decide how much you pay in taxes, whether gay marriage should be outlawed, or if we go to war. If you can, get registered.

Oh, and ignore all the rhetoric and ugly campaign ads. Focus on the issues and what's REALLY important. It's very easy to get caught up in the smear campaigns BOTH parties are shoving in our face every day.

[Moon_Lover]

Hm...I can appreciate the sentiment, but I'm compelled to point out the fact that there's a number of Pack members who are intercontinental.
That aside...

[MattSullivan]

Yes, but i'm guessing the majority of them ARE Americans. If you're not American, then simply ignore this thread.

[Lukas]

im not old anoth to vote

[BlackWolfDS]

I'm not old enough (one more year) But I do know of the decline in voters due to the fact that I am in Government class.
Anyway, most people don't vote because they feel that their vote won't matter. That and the fact that they might not agree with who is running in either party.
Vote No on 90
Vote yes on 87

[Terastas]

Newly registered just for this one, and quite frankly, I can't wait, both to vote, and to be done with the negative ads. There's only half the mudslinging between the two candidates for Massachusetts Lt. Governor since Deval Patrick hasn't done any, but Kerry Healey has sunk so low with her campaign that she could have done enough mudslinging for all of New England by this point.

Then on top of that, there's even more advertising for both sides of Question One, which if passed, will allow grocery stores to sell wine if they get local approval. Right now the liquor stores have a monopoly, so they've funded a huge fear campaign against it, and I can only presume the grocery stores and local breweries are funding all the pro-ads.

I'm planning to vote for Deval Patrick and "yes" on Question 1, if only because those two sides never had music in their ads that could have been ripped right out of an 80s horror movie.

You know what though? As much as I hate negative ads, I am tempted to vote for the Independent this year because of one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT9Xp0P9eOo

[Fenrir]

I went to his website I agree with most of his ideas, I've never been able to say that with a politician!!!! If i could vote and lived in Massachussetts id vote for him

[nachoboy]

i totally would vote if i was a year older. i'm completely for voting.

[Anubis]

Me two... but i'm not a fan of the lines. They are using the new electonic voting system at my state and we don't have a lot of them and it's going to be a long wait to cast a ballot.

[Scott Gardener]

I voted absentee. If you are old enough to vote and American, then vote ASAP! If you're somewhere else, most of the free world has elections, too--hence the term "free world." Keep it free, and vote!

Edit: and, research your candidates. That way, your votes are more meaningful than random chance!

[wolf_onmitsu]

I'm not old enough to vote, but I did get the see the prez come to our town.......it was pretty cool.
http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles ... bush_z.txt

[Ashkin-Tyr]

I intend on registering and voting for this upcoming election season.

Currently there are countless “mudslinging” campaign ads clogging the television stations. Rather than providing their outline for the future, the ads do nothing short of defacing the other candidate for Wisconsin Governor. It is annoying as I am sure Mark Green and Jim Doyle both have plenty of skeletons in their closets.

It is getting rather tiring and I cannot wait for it to end.

[Aki]

You know what though? As much as I hate negative ads, I am tempted to vote for the Independent this year because of one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT9Xp0P9eOo

That was such an awesome ad. Surprised me when I first saw it, heh. Animated ads for politics are rare.

I'm too young to vote. I would if I could. Its' kinda frustrating not being able to because you can't even try and keep someone out of office you don't want there. <_<

[MattSullivan]

Guys, the reason you fel like your vote doesn't matter, is bacuase there will always be a winner, and a loser.

if you are on the losing side, it's easy to THINK your vote doesnt matter. But that's apathy. And apathy is dangerous to a democracy.

Your vote does matter. And if you happen to lose, keep voting until you win. Go out. Rally support for your cause. Don't smear people, just present the facts, and you will eventually win. It DOES happen.

And even if you disagree with the side that won, think of it this way. THEY think they're doing what's right for the country. You ought to be inspired, even if the laws and propositions they pass are harmful or bigoted.

It's the same reason we have free speech. A person can say all of the most awful things. And you might disagree with it, but you should also defend TO THE DEATH, that person's right to say it.

VOTE!

[Kirk Hammett]

Non American I might be, but I certainly vote in Australia.

All politicians lie. You have to weed the lies out. Who will keep his or her promise? What is best for your family in the future? What is best for the country and the environment and for all cultures living in the country? What can most people agree with and be happy with? What sort of compromises will you have to make to vote for certain parties?

[MattSullivan]

I would argue that elections are more important in the US right now, because we're in the middle of a very unpopular war. One side insists it can be "won" The other side says it can't be. others think the republicans, who have been in power for 12 years straight ( senate and house, Im not talking about the presidency ) have had their fun, and it's time for them to go.

Whatever your opinion, just go vote! It DOES matter. i can't stress that enough.

[Kirk Hammett]

They're just as important here -not to sound all defensive and childish-. The war affects us badly because we have a government who follows yours like a dog.

We have a lot of drought issues, climate change issues (Which are totally global) as well to deal with, and immigration, culture, terrorist threats, oh and I mentioned drought, drought is killing us right now, and all our food supplies.

Our government is beginning to piss other governments off anyway. Our Prime Minister is involved in a hell of a lot of international affairs. We don't sit around here doing nothing. We're not the "WTF" country. We're deeply involved.

And I want to be the country going "WTF" I want to be the peaceful, neutral country. It doesn't happen.

---

I forgot to mention. They wish to return conscription to Australia too. Sickening.

[MattSullivan]

I didn't mean to imply that elections weren't important in Australia. And by the way, Australia is an ally. We don't look at it like you're following America's orders like a dog or anything. If you dont like the policy, and you dontwantto align yourselves with American policy, vote someone into office who will sever the ties.

This is my point. Elections matter, no matter where you are.

[Kirk Hammett]

Trust me Matt, I don't want severed ties. (We will get bombed. And I have American friends. But I don't like George Bush much) I think it's a general Australian view, that other countries don't get, because they don't watch our media; and we don't get all your views from the media.

As much as I dislike a LOT of our Prime Minister policies, he IS trying, with his allies (Oh, gotta keep em all happy, or our country gets bombed. Thats how it goes). America doesn't see Australia as the dog. Australia sees itself as the dog...because we just have seen him make so many mistakes (John "Coward" Howard) but I guess he's only human.

But I swear, if he doesn't sign that goddamn Kyoto agreement Global Warming reduction agreement...argh! What annoys me is he jumped on the bandwagon...the 'Green' wagon, and is now acting as if he cares about the environment and our farmer's predicaments (Which are -extremely- severe) when he only wants the next vote.

I hate it all.

Miss Congeniality: "I want...world peace!"

Hah and don't get me started on the nuclear power debates. I'm not voting for the party going for that. There are a million reasons why dumping the stuff in the spot they chose in Australia is a bad, bad idea (Sea level change, geothermal hotspot, 20,000 year half life etc...can go for hours on about it, I did an essay for Uni on it once), and why it's still emitting carbon dioxide and nother bad gases when building the stupid stations and transporting the stuff.

Ahhh!!! I could go forever!!!

Sorry if I seemed attacking. Politics is such a damned touchy subject. I don't talk about it much, but thought I'd spout some of my whining here!

[MoonKit]

I swear...eveytime I come here...someone has posting something that mirrors my thoughts or actions from a previous day. We're all on the same wave length!

I actually just sent out my stuff in the mail to register. I probably still wont be able to vite for awhile, but at least its sent out. And my mate did a change of address one.

[outwarddoodles]

I definitely also want to encourage others here to go out and vote.

But I also want to say that if you're too young to vote, that doesn't mean you can't affect the elections. I have been trying what I can do to support the Ohio Democratic Canidates around here. I've passed out pamphlets, yesterday I had spent my afternoon at the Democrat Headquarters calling up registered democrats to ask and remind them to vote, and this Tuesday I might be volunteering to help run some Polls.

There's so many ways you can go out and support your views and canidates, and to encourage people, regardless of their political views, to make their vote count.

[Uniform Two Six]

Vote No on 90
Vote yes on 87

I totally agree on both counts, but especially on 90. Although I HATE seeing blatant abuse of emminent domain like what happened in New London, CT, it's already hard enough to get anything built here as it is. In 1989 when the I-880 Nimitz Freeway Cypress structure collapsed during Loma Prieta, we had to deal with the complete absence of a whole friggin' freeway for almost a full decade. Not because there wasn't any money to rebuild the darned thing, or some technical problem (like poor soils -- which is also true there), but because of all the lawsuits from area residents who didn't like a freeway going through the neighborhood. Mind you, this is NOT putting in a NEW freeway... it's replacing a freeway that was ALREADY THERE! It took them until 1998 to get the thing replaced, and only then after they completely re-routed something like five miles of the silly thing. And don't get me started on the whole thing about power plant construction being held up because of lawsuits. That stupidity set us up for the whole summer 2001 energy crisis which Enron, Duke and El Paso used to rape us for something like thirteen BILLON dollars (Thanks for coming to our rescue President Bush, your response was almost as timely and skilled as Hurricane Katrina). Sheesh!

[vrikasatma]

We Oregonians are lucky enough to have balloting by mail. Not only do we get to vote three weeks before everyone else, there's a paper trail that's verifiable.

Other states sneer at us, "That could lead to voter fraud!" And our answer is, "You mean the Diebold machines aren't?" Sure, Oregon is one of the highest incidences of domestic violence and an abusive mate can force their partner to vote a certain way. It could happen. With the voting machines, it WILL happen.

But that's a whole 'nother kettle of mercury-laden fish.

I have a date to go to a turn-out-the-vote phone party in about an hour, we're calling Democratic voters across the country to remind them to vote. All polls point to a Democratic landslide in the election, which would put the kibosh to the Rubber-Stamp Congress, but I'm still holding my breath and not celebrating yet.

I blogged a couple weeks ago about the election. I said countries need a liberal government because under a progressive government, everyone can be whatever they want to be. A liberal government doesn't prohibit abortion or gay marriage but it doesn't force anyone to do anything, either. You don't have to be vegetarian. You don't have to be gay. You don't have to stop going to church.

I hold no illusions that a Democratic Congress would end the war in Iraq. It will certainly stop the preparations for war with Iran...and it will also re-emphasize the need for more health care, research, and most importantly it will purge the corrupted element (I'm thinking of Foley and Bob Ney right now); without partisan cronies to cluster and build a wall of silence or worse, posturing, the investigations will go through unobstructed.

If nothing else, remember this: last week, President Bush added language to the Insurrection Act amendment to the Defense Spending Bill currently in the House. This language allows him to call up armed forces, including the National Guard, to put down violent protests. I'm thinking about your average anti-war protest in Berkeley, San Francisco, and the WTO riots in Seattle a few years ago. Any protest in this country, that is instigated or joined by groups like A.N.S.W.E.R. or the Ruckus Society, could potentially become a Tienamen Square. I asked my readers that if they were at a demonstration that turned violent, cut and run and let the guys with the guns deal with them. Can you see where this is going? A.N.S.W.E.R. joins protest = suppression of freedom of speech, either by attrition or direct reprisal. How did this provision get into the bill? Congress stood aside and did nothing. (I swear to Ghod, we <B>NEED</B> the line-item veto).

Sidenote: I've been talking that up to everyone I know and they all agree on one point: Bush did that because he knows the Republicans are going to try to steal another election, and he wants to head off any protests. I'm personally concerned that if he conveniently declares martial law, he could even postpone the 2008 election and remain in power unopposed. But here's what you can do.

The Blue Revolution is calling for people to convene candlelight vigils outside their county election offices on Election Night, wearing blue. The purpose of these vigils is to make sure every vote is counted. We've had a problem with thousands of identified Democratic voters being purged from the polls and their votes nullified, across the country, thus handing conservative Republicans victory after victory in the face of exit polls and straw polls finding otherwise.

We all want fair, transparent and accountable elections, whether we're conservative or progressive. It's like schools and roads and clean water: it's basic infrastructure to this country.

[Terastas]

Guys, the reason you fel like your vote doesn't matter, is bacuase there will always be a winner, and a loser.

I think it's because a lot of people get into a bad habit of voting, not for their first choice, but who they think is going to win. That said, when who they voted for doesn't win, the first thing that often comes to mind is "election fraud."

And of course, that's another rant entirely.

[PariahPoet]

Meh, I'm living outside the county I'm registered to vote in, so I'm out. That and I just don't care enough. They're all the same. There's no way to know where anybody really stands on the issues, so I'm not going to kill myself to register to vote down here when I don't like anybody. My preferred party will never get on the ballot, so why bother?