So now we have a new excuse not to vote -- election fraud. This is the newest member of a pile of reasons I see some progressives using to shirk their duty. Included on that pile are various forms and incantations of the mantras: "all candidates are dirty", and "voting endorses a corrupt system."
What a crock. Vote Anyway.
Let's take each in turn, shall we?
No, I'm not a "cooincidence theorist." In fact I was active post-2004 in the exposure of fraud in Ohio and elsewhere. I'm one of the "fraudsters," the "conspiracy theorists," the "paranoid" as those who haven't bothered to study the issue call us. And I say: Vote Anyway.
The fraud machine is not perfect, and it can be overwhelmed -- if not nationally, at least in local contests which are also important. When the media called the state of Ohio, and those who really should know better refused to investigate thoroughly, it was because of the size of the margin. In fact, the most used excuse by those who refused to open their eyes was "Well, it couldn't have changed the election anyway."
Yes, Diebold and ES&S have taken over more territory this time around. Yes, it worked for them last time. But not every polling place is compromised, not every margin is small enough to tweak, not every BoE is full of incompetants, and some small gains have even been made by our side.
By not voting, you make the fraud easier to hide. You do, personally. There may be plenty of blame to go around, but some of it is on you for not doing your part. You pass up an opportunity to call in a suspicious voting machine. You fail to be a potential eye witness to any shenanigans. You give the winning side the pass to say "well, my opponents just didn't get enough people out to vote." You don't get counted in an exit poll. You weaken the evidence, statistical or otherwise, that something untoward is going on.
This is no real reason not to vote. It is an excuse, a rationalisation, an apology for your own lethargy.
Vote Anyway.
When you say this, what you are really saying is "I am too stupid or lazy to figure out which of these guys is going to do less damage." If you suddenly found yourself in the oncoming traffic lane, and had the unfortunate choice of either being hit by a MAC truck or by a passenger car, would you just stand there? Sounds kind of stupid to me. This is a victim's mentatlity. Is your mind really so weak?
The sad part is that it isn't just you in the wrong freeway lane. It's your friends, family, neighbors, fellow citizens, and when it comes to a country like the U.S. with a signifigant projection of foreign influence, just about every person in the entire world. You must really not care at all, to do something so utterly stupid.
Don't harbor any delusions. Whoever wins will be your opponent for their next term of office, and stand in the way of reforming the system to the point where we have some decent candidates to vote for. Will it be the one that is buddy-buddy with 100 huge multinational corporations, or the one who only has 5? Which one would you rather fight for the next few years?
Vote Anyway.
Grow up.
Everyone who pays attention to politics and has two brain cells to rub together knows that you can vote either for someone or against their opponent. Whoever wins, whether there are 100 million votes cast or only 2 million, whether they won by 15% or by 1%, will still proudly declare that they have the "support of the people." Your non-vote will have no effect on this.
You think that in a government for and by the rich and powerful, that they will think one second about just giving that power up because not enough people voted? What daydream are you living in, anyway? If that happened, they would start to say "Well, do we really need to hold elections?". And they would sell that to the young and inexperienced with the same devious and sly techniques that they have come to master over the decades. They are patient, and if they see an opportunity to take away the right to vote entirely, even if it will take 50 years, they will methodically proceed to do so. Or, if they want to keep up appearences, they will vote for you. Would you ever know if a vote was cast in your name?
Oh, you're one of those people waiting for an armed revolution? Keep dreaming. Nothing is going to get the average couch potato to put himself in the line of fire, and of those who will, more of them will be more than happy to take a payoff and come out gunning for the other side. It isn't going to happen, and while you waste time waiting for the the first shots that will never be fired, your country lapses further into its coma.
The truth is that the governing powers stopped regarding your consent as essential a long time ago. The best you can hope for now is a gradual replacement of the true asshats by less deplorable people until such a time as you get one who actually has the slightest twinge of respect for the people, and from there, a slow rebuilding of our democracy. Voting is essential, one of the only tools at our disposal to nudge the system along.
Protesting the injustice by "boycotting the ballot box" is like protesting automobile accidents by "boycotting steering wheels." There is nothing the powermongers would like to see you boycott more.
Vote Anyway.Even if you intend to file a completely blank ballot, you should still go to the poll and vote. Show up, or when you suddenly decide it matters, you'll likely find out you've been quietly slipped off the registration roles. And you'll find that your polling station doesn't have enough machines because they guestimated how many people would show up based on last year's turnout and cut corners.
Then at least when you complain about your representative ignoring "ordinary people like you" you won't be filled to the gills with crap. You know what happens when you write your congresscritters a letter, by the way? First they have their staff check to see if you are in their district... and whether you are registered... and whether you voted. (Yes, it is public information.) Don't give them a reason to ignore you out of hand.
Ever heard the phrase "Oh, those people don't vote anyway"? Don't be on the receiving end.
So for all our sakes, please people, Vote Anyway
Copyright (c) October 2004 Brian S. Julin