Voted today? Sound off!

[Dragon]

you still don't get it... i give up.

Oh I understand what you're saying, I just don't agree with it.

I say I refuse to waste my time voting for someone who has no chance.

You say it's because I think they have no chance that they have no chance.

I say I won't waste my time because other people are too narrow-minded and refuse to look past the two main options (even when they don't agree with them).

You say that it's because people like me refuse to waste their time and have their voice heard, that others refuse to break their narrow-mindedness.

But you know what I say, people are sheep, they don't think for themselves, they have bought into the if I'm not one I'm the other, if I'm not for one I must be for the other. Until the American Public breaks out of that mentality I see no point in wasting my time in a meaningless gesture.

[JohnC]

you still don't get it... i give up.

Oh I understand what you're saying, I just don't agree with it.

I say I refuse to waste my time voting for someone who has no chance.

You say it's because I think they have no chance that they have no chance.

I say I won't waste my time because other people are too narrow-minded and refuse to look past the two main options (even when they don't agree with them).

You say that it's because people like me refuse to waste their time and have their voice heard, that others refuse to break their narrow-mindedness.

But you know what I say, people are sheep, they don't think for themselves, they have bought into the if I'm not one I'm the other, if I'm not for one I must be for the other. Until the American Public breaks out of that mentality I see no point in wasting my time in a meaningless gesture.

So basically, you're doing what you do because of the actions of the "American Public"?

Baaaa-aaaaah!!!! Baaa-aaaaah!!!!! (lame attempt at a sheep sound)

[Dragon]

No I did what I did because I refuse to fall into line with the rest of the American Public and vote for the lesser of two evils when I don't like either candidate. I also value my time refuse to waste it on a meaningless gesture. Sure I could stand up and say Bush sucks, Kerry sucks, I voted for blah blah blah, but what's the point it's like talking to a brick wall cause it means nothing. Oh wow, look at that, someone voted for IP Freely, well congratulations IP Freely got a whooping 0.000000000001% of the vote in VA, that won't show up anywhere. I had better things that I could have been doing and I did them.

[ScottyB]

voting for the third party kinda reminds me of cheering for minardi during an F1 race :lol:

i too, hate the 2 party system. i wonder if it will ever change.

[Evan]

Matt I understand what you are saying about not having a choice you fully support, but I think you are bogging yourself down in the weeds of the details.
Fact of the matter is, we have presidential elections every 4 years. Even if you dont like any of the candidates, one of them still has to win, and one of them must suck less
So you can either vote for the best possible leader of the country (because there will be one whether you like them or not), or you can sit it out, glide through the process and not contribute anything.

as far as blind political affiliation goes, I completely agree with you. While Im sure most of you think I am a diehard right wing republican, I am most definately not (and even used to be slightly liberal) and I believe blind party affiliation undermines the entire system.

[Maengelito]

i think the two party system has its problems, but can you imagine having like 8 candidates running for president? "and Gerald Irish wins the presidency with a overwhelming 17% of the popular vote". that would mean that over 80% thought someone else would be better (women probably not included...)

and matt, while i understand your frustration, its important to know that there's also local elections which took place which are probably more important to affect you directly. in c'ville, the house of reps elected the incumbent virgil goode, and there were also two bills that were passed due to the voting yesterday. so its not just the presidential election that you missed. however, the more support a guy like nader gets, the more eligible for funding he is for the next election, so votes always count.

[JohnC]

its important to know that there's also local elections which took place which are probably more important to affect you directly.

Excellent point...

[Dragon]

local elections which took place which are probably more important to affect you directly

Bah c'mon now, we all know I move more often then RJ changes his underwear, local elections have no effect on me (Jan '05 is lookin good if you got that month in the pool). In all seriousness, I had completely overlooked that in my disgust with the presedential options and regret that.

[G.Irish]

I don't pretend to speak for Matt but this is my beef with the third parties that show up every so often.

They think they can build their party by starting out at the presidency. Think about how stupid that is. That would be like me coming out of college then trying to be hired as CEO of IBM. It doesn't happen like that. For any of the third parties to rise and succeed they need to prove that their ideals are successful at the local, state, and congressional levels. The reason no one really takes them seriously is because many of them have never held an office of any kind. Sure, you could still technically become president but if people have never heard of you before the election year and you have no history, you have no chance.

Then there's the fact that it would be difficult for the third parties to raise the kind of money to run a successful presidential campaign without a support base. Grassroots organizations raised 10's of millions of dollars for both parties, the Green and Libertarian parties had no such apparatus to even get their foots in the door.

If any party is going to challenge the Democratic and Republican stranglehold they are going to have to do it the old-fashioned way. Through hard work, through evangelism, through building a legacy. They will never be successful trying to win the lazy way unless the 2 major parties self-destruct.

[.RJ]

They will never be successful trying to win the lazy way unless the 2 major parties self-destruct.

Or we have martian law.....

[Kaan]

i cant wait for a period of martial law... that means my gun WILL come in handy.... cause shit really hit the fan! but i will hate the curfue

[.RJ]

No, MartiaN law....... fool.

[Kaan]

you know the ability to read is not a degree requirement at JMU.... neither is spelling! so F off RJ!

[.RJ]

What we have here.... is a failure... to communicate!

[Dragon]

Hell submitting the proper forms on time isn't a degree requirement at JMU.

[.RJ]

Or a teaching requirement apparently....

[Feersty]

2 party system is fine by me.

[G.Irish]

Greeeaaaatttt...Just when I thought we weren't going to have any problems with voting fraud and such: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://politics.slashdot.org/politics/04/11/03/1815227.shtml?tid=103&tid=219">http://politics.slashdot.org/politics/0 ... 03&tid=219</a><!-- m -->

I seriously hope that an audit of the electronic voting does not reveal widespread discrepancies that would've given Kerry the win. Even though I don't like Bush I hope the result is that he won fair and square, otherwise it will further undermine confidence in the US government. Either way there has to be a showdown over the verifiability of our elections.

[Evan]

there isnt anything in that article to suggest that there was fraud, just that this (sore loser?) website wants to do its own audit.

[G.Irish]

One of the blackboxvoting.org people who spoke up on the comments actually was pro-Republican.

And if you read the article the fact that there is already evidence:

"We've gotten one KEY piece already: proof that King County hacked into their audit log and destroyed three hours worth of records on election night during the WA state primaries."

The big thing is just that the Diebold machines leave no paper trail. Search on stories about their use in California and IIRC they were banned from California because of security flaws.

Even if these guys were Democrats its scary to think that the election cannot be verified and its foolish to think that people wouldn't try to cheat if they knew they couldn't be caught. There is already several cases in several states where new voter registrations were plain torn up.