Anyone who thought their vote didn’t matter got an education on that topic two years ago, when literally a handful of votes separated Gore and Bush.
Every. vote. matters.
My friend Susan was saying the other night she remembers how many people were saying in 2000, “There’s no difference between Gore and Bush. They’re two halves of the same bad coin. It doesn’t matter.” Well, I think few people on either side of the political spectrum would agree today that things aren’t fundamentally different because of that outcome.
I just want to encourage everyone out there to vote tomorrow. Take a little time and just do it. The defenders of the status quo want people to be apathetic and stay home, because then they control the agenda. Voting matters. It’s the first and most important step toward taking back a democracy that’s gotten seriously out of hand.
Votes mean things.
Oh, so so so true. I’ve been working with a coalition to try and prevent yet another Miami voting debacle, and so many people I speak with tell me they don’t think it matters. That actually disturbs me more than the conspiracy types.
A few people have said they are worried about the new electronic voting machines, fearing that Bush and Ashcroft will track the people who vote against Republicans. Paranoid fantasy, or good sense?
Huh, never thought of that, mkh. But, sadly enough, it’s 100% possible. Sadder still, given the paranoia of Ashcroft, it’s much of a stretch that he would try to do something like that.
The difficult part of actually tracking folks, at least on this system here, is that there isn’t any record of which machine you used. You sign in, and are lead to whatever machine is available.
And yay for absentee voting! I vote absentee just for the convenience of the thing. Send in the little card, and they mail your stuff right to you — fill it out whenever, pop it in the mail so it gets there by voting day. Now it doesn’t matter that I am frantic at work and can’t get away, as I’ve already sent it in.
No computers if you vote absentee, either…
Now where did I put that green card?
I saw a piece on tv tonight about using the new electronic machines for voting and I thought to myself, ” What is stopping them(the powers that be) from electronically changing your vote?” What proof do you have of your vote? Do they give you some kind of receipt? Who monitors this system to ensure security? What’s the deal?
I just used the touchscreen voting machine here. I like the potential of touchscreen voting, but there are so many unanswered questions. It gives you a summary of your votes before you cast your ballot, but it gives you no written summary of your votes. There’s no paper trail. I’m sure your votes could be changed without your knowledge – there are indications that malfunctioning voting machines in Florida (again?) caused some extra votes to be cast for Bush this morning.
Vegas slot programmers have put backdoors in that have allowed them to win money. There’s no doubt that election machine programmers on either party’s payroll could do the same. I’m just waiting for the first major operating system crash where an entire precinct’s votes are lost and the official response is “too bad”.