What Does Your Vote Mean to You?

[Blargoblarg]

I vote because I want to see the candidates I think are the best win and change the country for the better. It may not seem like one vote will mean much, but there have been a number of cases where candidates won by a very small number of votes, sometimes even one vote.

In addition to voting, I have been donating when I can to the candidates I want to see win, and I've been promoting some of those candidates and their ideas online.

[Lynn Nation]

If our system was set up right, my vote would express my feelings in our society.

[Slotted Floppies]

Voting is just a method for authoritarians to red herring every political conversation.

There’s no reason for government so there’s no no reason to vote.

[Kowani]

Voting is just a method for authoritarians to red herring every political conversation.

There’s no reason for government so there’s no no reason to vote.

Yeah, that’s not actually true.

[Cameroi]

it means expressing my opinion, in the hope the resulting consensus will be taken seriously.

i am, however, far more interested in issues and policies then in personalities.
the only pertinence of personalities is as to their appearant position on issues and policies.

if i could vote directly on issues and only on issues, i would very much prefer this to 'beauty contests' between personalities.

[Cameroi]

Voting is just a method for authoritarians to red herring every political conversation.

as is this claim itself

There’s no reason for government so there’s no no reason to vote.

this would be true, in a culture of universally mutual consideration. such a culture is quite possible,
but does not currently dominate world conditions (and cannot and is not created by indifference and scapegoating)

also with a small enough population and enough space between it, a condition that has not existed for humans on planet earth for more then a thousand, possibly several thousand, years.

it is possible to have governments though, that exist to serve the common interest, and only to serve it,
without the political games of deviding people against themselves, or even formalized hierarchies.

it is even possible to have fair elections without any political parties at all.

and it is possible also, to have such systems where one can vote directly on issues without having to chose personalities to represent our individual positions on them.

but government, is a thing that exists defacto, any time anyone encroaches on the freedom of anyone else, for any reason or intent, or even unintentionally.

the vacuum it fills is created when individuals are unwilling or unable to restrain themselves from doing so.

[San Lumen]

I always vote. I see it as civic duty and a right. Millions around the world don't have that right. As someone who is LGBT we got equality by voting for people who supported equal rights.

When people say my vote doesnt matter or I dont have time or can't be bothered i say this

Not voting or saying my vote doesnt matter is how you get some of the crazy people in Congress or statewide office

Every vote matters not every election will be decided by one vote and its totally absurd to expect that it will. That doesn't mean you shouldnt vote.

Claiming you don't have time, don't know enough or don't care is pure ignorance. Even in your municipality roads arent paved by magic. That comes from taxes and that money is allocated by people you elect in local elections.

If you don't vote you have no right to complain. if your don't like whose running or in office get off your high horse and run for office yourself.

[United Muscovite Nations]

I don't vote, there's no point to doing so because I know who my state/county/district will vote for.

[Internationalist Bastard]

I vote third party
So nothing

[San Lumen]

I don't vote, there's no point to doing so because I know who my state/county/district will vote for.

Then don’t complain about who gets elected or what they do in office

[Hakons]

My perspective: As an American citizen, I consider myself a partial owner of the United States of America and all of its institutions and resources. In the same way that if I bought a house with a friend, and each of us contributed to paying the bills and maintaining the house, I am a partner in ownership of that house and my friend is too, I am a partner in the ownership of the United States of America with hundreds of millions of other people.

I always vote; I have never missed a vote since I turned 18, but I do not think I owe it to anyone else to vote. I do it because it is one of the only forms of power I can wield as a regular person without wealth or any other form of political power.

In the case of the previous and upcoming Presidential election, I unequivocally despise Donald Trump and everything he stands for, but I did/do not have an obligation to anyone else to keep/remove Trump from office.

I view my vote as if I am conducting a job interview, that the candidate must impress me, and that if all the interviewees are terrible, being the least terrible does not mean you are entitled to be hired. My vote is one of my only means of power and I will not give it to the undeserving.

This is a good civic view to have on voting. American government is owned by the people. Some cynically say government is owned by special interests, but I think it is best to be optimistic and not give in to pessimism that only discourages people not to vote. Having a vote is tremendous power and the best development in governing systems ever devised.

Where I differ is I don't despise Trump, because I don't think we should despise people. This is a little difficult to maintain, especially for figures like Stalin or Hitler, but they are thankfully dead. One can despise ideas, however, and Trump's immigration policy has been pretty despicable. However, I'm Republican and support many of his other policies.

Religiously, voting is an obligation. To not vote is to not fulfill one's role and duty to the community. It's not a sin per say to not vote, but it's against Church social teaching.

[Internationalist Bastard]

I don't vote, there's no point to doing so because I know who my state/county/district will vote for.

Then don’t complain about who gets elected or what they do in office

Can’t blame him for not wasting the effort to vote when the system is built in a way his vote doesn’t matter

[United Muscovite Nations]

I don't vote, there's no point to doing so because I know who my state/county/district will vote for.

Then don’t complain about who gets elected or what they do in office

I can complain, just because my vote doesn't matter doesn't mean I don't get to complain that I live in a system where my vote doesn't matter.

As I told you before, in our last senate election, the vote in my county was 84% Republican, no amount of me voting is going to change that substantially, and our system is set up in such a way that if you're one of the 16% that voted Democrat, your vote didn't matter because it has zero impact on the outcome of the election.

[Pinch Me]

My perspective: As an American citizen, I consider myself a partial owner of the United States of America and all of its institutions and resources. In the same way that if I bought a house with a friend, and each of us contributed to paying the bills and maintaining the house, I am a partner in ownership of that house and my friend is too, I am a partner in the ownership of the United States of America with hundreds of millions of other people.

I always vote; I have never missed a vote since I turned 18, but I do not think I owe it to anyone else to vote. I do it because it is one of the only forms of power I can wield as a regular person without wealth or any other form of political power.

In the case of the previous and upcoming Presidential election, I unequivocally despise Donald Trump and everything he stands for, but I did/do not have an obligation to anyone else to keep/remove Trump from office.

I view my vote as if I am conducting a job interview, that the candidate must impress me, and that if all the interviewees are terrible, being the least terrible does not mean you are entitled to be hired. My vote is one of my only means of power and I will not give it to the undeserving.

This is a good civic view to have on voting. American government is owned by the people. Some cynically say government is owned by special interests, but I think it is best to be optimistic and not give in to pessimism that only discourages people not to vote. Having a vote is tremendous power and the best development in governing systems ever devised.

Where I differ is I don't despise Trump, because I don't think we should despise people. This is a little difficult to maintain, especially for figures like Stalin or Hitler, but they are thankfully dead. One can despise ideas, however, and Trump's immigration policy has been pretty despicable. However, I'm Republican and support many of his other policies.

Religiously, voting is an obligation. To not vote is to not fulfill one's role and duty to the community. It's not a sin per say to not vote, but it's against Church social teaching.

A vote doesn't mean anything if it's based on ignorance. Person A tells Person B they won't vote. B tells A that they should vote. A goes and votes for the candidate B thinks is the worst.

You can't just say "everyone should vote" without specifying a candidate they should vote for and why.

The moral obligation is not to vote, but to vote for the right candidate!

[Cupofchar]

I'm British- My vote is something to play with not for: by judicious manipulation of boundaries the Political parties shift the political landscape to suit themselves and guarantee as many safe seats as possible. If you look at general elections the majority of seats don't change hands and minority party voters are marginalised. The candidates standing are chosen by the parties - sometimes even being preferentially ranked to favour the career politician who is returned even though there might be better candidates lower in the lists.

There has been some mention of (sort of) primaries to select who stands for a certain parties- but whether this will be realised is another matter and they'll probably keep it all neatly tied up in house.

I'd like to see an additional option on the ballot where you can also vote against candidates because they are unsuitable which should help suppress unsavoury candidates - ie bnp and so on.

They have introduced recall recently but this can only be used if they've been bad boys and girls - such as spending over a year in the clink. I would like to see these 'change- uk' (or whatever they're called) face the music of their constituents who in many cases would kick these rebels reneging on 'their contract to represent them and honour what their manifesto promised'.

[San Lumen]

Then don’t complain about who gets elected or what they do in office

I can complain, just because my vote doesn't matter doesn't mean I don't get to complain that I live in a system where my vote doesn't matter.

As I told you before, in our last senate election, the vote in my county was 84% Republican, no amount of me voting is going to change that substantially, and our system is set up in such a way that if you're one of the 16% that voted Democrat, your vote didn't matter because it has zero impact on the outcome of the election.

Yeah why bother showing up to vote in Denver, Baltimore, New haven, Minneapolis or Seattle: the Democrat will always win.

Next day: how did the other candidate win?

Attitudes like that is how truly horrible people get elected

[United Muscovite Nations]

I can complain, just because my vote doesn't matter doesn't mean I don't get to complain that I live in a system where my vote doesn't matter.

As I told you before, in our last senate election, the vote in my county was 84% Republican, no amount of me voting is going to change that substantially, and our system is set up in such a way that if you're one of the 16% that voted Democrat, your vote didn't matter because it has zero impact on the outcome of the election.

Yeah why bother showing up to vote in Denver, Baltimore, New haven, Minneapolis or Seattle: the Democrat will always win.

Next day: how did the other candidate win?

Attitudes like that is how truly horrible people get elected

If you have no chance of victory, what is the point of voting in a winner-take-all election?

Seriously, if you can be 100% sure that one person will win, what is the point of voting against that person? Give one good reason to.

[San Lumen]

Yeah why bother showing up to vote in Denver, Baltimore, New haven, Minneapolis or Seattle: the Democrat will always win.

Next day: how did the other candidate win?

Attitudes like that is how truly horrible people get elected

If you have no chance of victory, what is the point of voting in a winner-take-all election?

Seriously, if you can be 100% sure that one person will win, what is the point of voting against that person? Give one good reason to.

It shows how much support they have plus it’s a way of expressing your opinion.

The governor of my state got 60 percent of the vote in the last election was it a waste of time to vote? I’m a poll worker as well. Should i stop doing it?

Are you of the attitude why bother showing up if there isn’t a guarantee of winning? Congresswoman Cindy axne of Iowa narrowly beat the incumbent due to the most populous county in the district Polk which is Des Moines voting for her by a wide margin. She lost every other county.

[United Muscovite Nations]

If you have no chance of victory, what is the point of voting in a winner-take-all election?

Seriously, if you can be 100% sure that one person will win, what is the point of voting against that person? Give one good reason to.

It shows how much support they have plus it’s a way of expressing your opinion.

The governor of my state got 60 percent of the vote in the last election was it a waste of time to vote? I’m a poll worker as well. Should i stop doing it?

Are you of the attitude why bother showing up if there isn’t a guarantee of winning? Congresswoman Cindy axne of Iowa narrowly beat the incumbent due to the most populous county in the district Polk which is Des Moines voting for her by a wide margin. She lost every other county.

It was a waste of time if you voted against him, because in a winner-take-all election, winning with 51% of the vote is no different from winning with 100%.

If there's not guarantee of winning or losing, go vote, but in my state, I always know who the state will vote for, and it's a winner-take-all state.

[West Leas Oros 2]

Very little.

[San Lumen]

It shows how much support they have plus it’s a way of expressing your opinion.

The governor of my state got 60 percent of the vote in the last election was it a waste of time to vote? I’m a poll worker as well. Should i stop doing it?

Are you of the attitude why bother showing up if there isn’t a guarantee of winning? Congresswoman Cindy axne of Iowa narrowly beat the incumbent due to the most populous county in the district Polk which is Des Moines voting for her by a wide margin. She lost every other county.

It was a waste of time if you voted against him, because in a winner-take-all election, winning with 51% of the vote is no different from winning with 100%.

If there's not guarantee of winning or losing, go vote, but in my state, I always know who the state will vote for, and it's a winner-take-all state.

With that attitude many of the upset victories last year would not have happened. Like AOC, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly, a 22 year old defeating a long time republican incumbent in the Connecticut state senate, congressman Antonio Delgado of New York . I could name many others.

But that would never happen in your area. People in Topeka should have said Kobach will win why bother

[West Leas Oros 2]

FPTP (First Past The Post) needs to go.

[United Muscovite Nations]

It was a waste of time if you voted against him, because in a winner-take-all election, winning with 51% of the vote is no different from winning with 100%.

If there's not guarantee of winning or losing, go vote, but in my state, I always know who the state will vote for, and it's a winner-take-all state.

With that attitude many of the upset victories last year would not have happened. Like AOC, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly, a 22 year old defeating a long time republican incumbent in the Connecticut state senate, congressman Antonio Delgado of New York . I could name many others.

But that would never happen in your area. People in Topeka should have said Kobach will win why bother

You act like you can never reliably predict outcomes, elections are not random, they have trends, and unless you live in a tossup state, polling is pretty reliable.

[San Lumen]

With that attitude many of the upset victories last year would not have happened. Like AOC, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly, a 22 year old defeating a long time republican incumbent in the Connecticut state senate, congressman Antonio Delgado of New York . I could name many others.

But that would never happen in your area. People in Topeka should have said Kobach will win why bother

You act like you can never reliably predict outcomes, elections are not random, they have trends, and unless you live in a tossup state, polling is pretty reliable.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t vote.

With that line of thinking why bother holding elections in some areas?

[United Muscovite Nations]

You act like you can never reliably predict outcomes, elections are not random, they have trends, and unless you live in a tossup state, polling is pretty reliable.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t vote.

With that line of thinking why bother holding elections in some areas?

That's actually a good question, why should we bother in some areas?