NationStates

A question for the people of NSG: What does your vote mean to you?

Is your vote an obligation you have to society to make the best choice for who is in charge?

Is your vote an exercise of your own power?

Is your vote a way of making sure the lesser evil wins?

Is your vote something that a candidate must earn?

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.

The 2020 election will be the first one I vote in but from everything I know about voting and the electoral process, I don’t exactly have a sky shatteringly high view of my vote. That isn’t to say that voting in general is unimportant, mind you, but realistically a vote from a twenty year old cashier from Arkansas alone doesn’t amount to much.

A means of getting people who don't give a shit about me into power.

At this point to me American democracy is a joke. My vote is simply me deciding which one won’t destroy as much as the other

The New California Republic wrote:A means of getting people who don't give a shit about me into power.

We might at least get people who pretend to give a shit. That morale boost, yeah?

In an effort to counter vote abstention (+marketing strategies) during a recent general election here, a whole bunch of shops and cafes gives you special discount during election day if you can show your finger has been marked with ink (mark for "i voted"), so that's that.

As an American fucking nothing because the popular vote means jackshit.

Page wrote:A question for the people of NSG: What does your vote mean to you?

I think I should vote because if not enough people vote someday every decision could be made autocratically by someone appointed to the position.

I vote because I know what life is like when your vote truly doesn't count.

95X wrote:

Page wrote:A question for the people of NSG: What does your vote mean to you?

I think I should vote because if not enough people vote someday every decision could be made autocratically by someone appointed to the position.

Or a radical minority. If 10% of more people voted, it may swing the result.

Nothing right now.

For me, my vote is my way of asserting my right to participate in the democratic process. No more, no less.

That said, although elections are not won or lost by one vote (with the possible exception of some by-elections), if enough of a percentage don't vote, it could drastically change the result of major elections.

Of course, there's an element of this, too:

The New California Republic wrote:A means of getting people who don't give a shit about me into power.

Andsed wrote:As an American fucking nothing because the popular vote means jackshit.

But if I am being serious while I am pretty sure the popular vote does literally nothing in determining who becomes president I do vote because voting and getting your voice out there is the only way to get your voice and ideas out there is one of the best ways to make positive changes in society and prevent negative changes.

I vote, but I'm not sure whether doing so is virtuous or makes me a small part of the problem.

Dumb Ideologies wrote:I vote, but I'm not sure whether doing so is virtuous or makes me a small part of the problem.

Just my two cents as a philisophical anarchist who thinks achieving democratic socialism in the short term would improve peoples' lives immediately and that despite long term goals toward statelessness it is worth saving lives whenever and however one can, I don't think voting contributes to the problem. The American population already has a huge amount of people who abstain from voting and that hasn't undermined the estabishment in any way.

Page wrote:

Dumb Ideologies wrote:I vote, but I'm not sure whether doing so is virtuous or makes me a small part of the problem.

Just my two cents as a philisophical anarchist who thinks achieving democratic socialism in the short term would improve peoples' lives immediately and that despite long term goals toward statelessness it is worth saving lives whenever and however one can, I don't think voting contributes to the problem. The American population already has a huge amount of people who abstain from voting and that hasn't undermined the estabishment in any way.

I'm not coming at the critique of liberal democracy from quite the same angle, as I'm not a philosophical anarchist or democratic socialist, though there might be some similarities as there tend to be in any two critiques of the same thing.

My opinion is that a "winner-takes-all" system is unjust and unnatural in several respects;

- The system pushes parties toward the centre rather than what they actually believe, while paradoxically the adversarial process pulls people apart rather than brings them together. Regular changeover from one group being in charge to the other results in "windscreen wiper" policy that goes back and forth without allowing any institution or new set of arrangements to bed in properly. All of which makes getting any real change to stick is near-impossible (by design).

- People generally know very little outside of what they have direct experience with. A group of politicians who are mainly lawyers, businessmen and landlords creating policy for areas they know nothing about is bizarre, and so is the populace voting for a general program for government when they'll only be informed about a tiny section of it. Professional groups, unions etc. are much better informed in their areas and government should arbitrate between them rather than imposing decisions on people who know better.

Basically I think the whole system is quite deliberately set up to generate a lot of distracting "noise" rather than to signal and deliver policy that reflects the real general will.

I don't think any of the people on the ballot or any of the party machines above them are qualified to do the job, I think the system reflects and perpetuates the unfair dominance of particular social groups, and I don't think I'm qualified to choose between their programs. The only reason I really vote is because I think the median person is even less informed than me so maybe I'm slightly raising the quality in my tiny little irrelevant corner!

My main emotion after voting is "surely we can do better", and frustration both at the system and me not quite having the constitutional chops to express what that would look like.

I’m black. People died so I could get the vote. So I vote.

The more people who think their vote is worthless, the more valuable my vote becomes. DOHOHOHO

Well I have to vote - otherwise there’s a fine. But that’s a good thing - it gives a much a clearer idea of what the country actually thinks. Also I’m fortunate enough to live in a system where it’s very difficult to waste your vote, so I very much value my vote.

Page wrote:Is your vote an obligation you have to society to make the best choice for who is in charge?

No.

Is your vote an exercise of your own power?

No.

Is your vote a way of making sure the lesser evil wins?

No.

Is your vote something that a candidate must earn?

No.

What does your vote mean to you?

The probability that my vote will be the decider if I vote is greater than zero. The probability that my vote will be the decider if I don't vote is zero.

Ergo, I vote. That's it.

Nothing tbh. I live in a solidly blue state that the Democrats would win even if they ran a braindead gopher as their candidate. I just vote in protest more often than not.

Voting to me is a concept where people align based on emotions and personality. I don't really see the need for voting politicians directly that continuously lie during the campaign in order to elected into their own offices. There should be a sort of restriction in this field as the concept of voting is too diverse in my concept. I believe that electing a politician should be delivered to the Parliament in respect instead of enabling the majority because it causes division.

As a Slovak, a vote for me is to express my motion of no confidence against my nation's corrupt post-KSC oligarchs who have impoverished and retarded our country's progress for years, and to make sure my yearning for meaningful change from the post-soviet marasmus actually means something in the wider political arena. Not voting or thinking "it's no use" got us here to begin with, so IMHO, it is the duty of a citizen to make damn well sure that no one will accidentally waste their vote. The democratic vote is the voice of the people, and the voice of the people is the voice of the nation.

Washington Resistance Army wrote:Nothing tbh. I live in a solidly blue state that the Democrats would win even if they ran a braindead gopher as their candidate. I just vote in protest more often than not.

Abolish the electoral college!

I vote, partly because I'm legally required to, but also because I think voting is crucial as an expression of your rights and citizenship.

It's one of the ways people get involved with the nation as a whole, by voting for candidates and supporting political parties. Otherwise you can just isolate yourself from the nation and connect with it only to pay taxes.