Serious Voting

[VisionofMilotic]

Do you vote? If you vote then have you recently cast a ballot or expect to do so in the near future? You may also wish to share what issue brought you to the polls as a voter. That's up to you though, no pressure to go into detail about your political preferences if you are not comfortable doing so.

If you do not vote then we're still interested in hearing your story, and what the reason for that is. While I live in the United States, this question is aimed at not just people in my country, but people all over the world, and it is ultimately about your personal experience that I'm asking.

Some of us don't vote because the opportunity to do so isn't there. You may reside in places that don't have an electoral system, or there aren't equal voting rights or the elections are not free and fair. You may live in a democracy, but simply don't meet all of the legal requirements to be eligible yet, and are waiting to reach the voting age, have rights restored after a conviction or obtain citizenship.

Many of us can vote, but choose not to. You may feel the candidates available don't represent your views, or you are a-politcal or have other philosophical objections to the process. All of this too makes for worthwhile discussion here in OT.

 

[Zeostar]

I went to the polling place in 2016 with my family, but I wasn't old enough to vote myself.

I finally got to vote this year, it was one of those things I had been looking forward to for a while.

 

[Nah]

I think I've voted in just about every election I've been able to since I became of voting age (which was already over a decade ago).

Put my ballot for this year's election in the mail nearly 2 weeks ago. Didn't place a vote for president, but I did for most of the other stuff. Not sure why I bothered though, voting has become so pointless in the U.S. in recent years (this year's especially).

 

[Nick]

I moved out of state recently so my dad sent me my mail in ballot last week and I got it on Monday, voted, and sent it back.

 

[Hermione Granger]

I am not a fan of Trump or Biden honestly and I am fed up with both main parties, because of their actions and beliefs. If I was able to talk to the entire Congress I would definitely be questioning their beliefs and same to people running and choose the candidate that would meet my views, but with the attack on religious rights or making a mockery of religions I really don't know who to trust.

 

[gimmepie]

Voting in Australia is mandatory, so you do it if you don't want to get fined. That being said though, I'd still do it even if it wasn't. Voting is important if you want to have any kind of impact on the laws that govern you.

 

[moon]

I vote in every major election, for EU parliament, government, region and muncipality. It is of course important to really know what you are voting for though, so if you don't have any time to read up and form a well informed opinion, maybe you shouldn't actually vote.

Sadly, it is the dumb, easily misled people who tend to vote for the more manipulative sides. So perhaps half informed mass votes for more benevolent alternatives are still better than letting the fascists win... It's tricky.

 

[Caite-chan]

If you don't like either party its more of a voting for the lesser evil. You have a right to vote when you're old enough. My family and pretty much anyone I talk to had the idea of if you're old enough to vote and you don't then you don't have the right to bitch about the President we end up with. Don't like it then maybe you should have voted.

 

[Corrin]

Some places make it harder for poorer neighborhoods to vote.
I saw a CNN article where a 94 year old had to travel 300 miles

 

[Marx321]

Yes, i did vote..
even though i didn't like the candidate or even i don't know him or her...
I just observe the people or others know that person.

Don't forget to pray in choosing the best candidate for the said position

 

[User Anon 1848]

I've only voted twice and for different parties each time. I was a-political for most of my life and wish I still was due to how divisive and toxic politics has become. I was much happier when tuned out from things. I have a pretty boring, centrist take on most issues other than immigration in which case I'm firmly to the right, so I have the tendency of upsetting people further to the left or right of any given issue. I care a lot about foreign policy too and feel that everyone should be against waging war regardless of what party you support. One of the few things I like about Trump is that he hasn't started a new war and is the first US president who can claim that in decades. Though he got dangerously close to doing so as recently as this year and back in 2017 when he launched those missiles into Syria. I try to take in perspectives from people of different political views too as I think it can be quite boring and unproductive to remain in an echo-chamber for too long. I've even had some civil discussions with antifa members lately which I never thought would happen.

 

[Sheep]

I'm a little ashamed to say that this was my first time voting, and I've been in the US for 20 years. Definitely glad I finally voted this year - sent my ballot in a few days ago!

 

[VisionofMilotic]

I am actually in the middle of voting right now. I got my absentee ballot in the mail a couple of weeks ago. What brought me here was the local candidates, the governor, congressional seats, judges, school superintendent etc. If they weren't on the ballot then I would probably skip this election because the choices for president of Biden or Trump both sicken me. I actually voted third party for the president.

I voted mostly democrat down ticket, but in some instances I did vote Republican. I am ideologically more left-wing in my views, but don't vote so partisan that any blue will do. If it is clear that a politician won't do shit to earn my vote then I don't mind taking that vote elsewhere.

One office I voted republican on was the attorney general because the democrat incumbent tried to keep an innocent black man in jail who had been there 40 years for a rape he never committed. Fortunately, the courts overturned the sentence and released him from prison this year when the DNA evidence exonerated him, but I have a long memory and haven't forgotten that the attorney general was on the wrong side of history and argued to uphold an unfair conviction. So I am willing to give the republican guy a chance. From what I have researched he doesn't look half bad so far.

Now a democrat who did get my vote was the town mayor. There was another man who was wrongfully convicted for murder in a different case in my home town some years back, also exonerated by DNA evidence. Unlike the AG the mayor did the right thing in this situation. Though he was not personally involved with this murder trial or even in office at the time, when he found out what happened he did what he could to help an innocent man sue for justice, and as mayor agreed to pay a financial settlement to him on behalf of the city, and wrote him an apology by hand, acknowledging the miscarriage of justice in the community. So I am cool with re-electing him.

I also voted to re-elect the democratic governor. He was not my first choice in the primary last term, but I did vote for him in the general since he at least didn't appear corrupt as far as I was aware, and the republican governor he was running against had been a catastrophe.

The previous governor was a tycoon from a predatory oil and gas company in my region that damaged our community in many ways, including causing a spill of 40,000 tons of coal ash into a state river. The republican had frequently protected the company he was a stock-holder in from all sorts of environmental lawsuits. He also fiendishly used his governor powers to keep the state from participating in a federal program that would have provided money for hospitals to give medical care to thousands of very poor individuals who were eligible for assistance. People who had lost their jobs and were supposed to be on unemployment insurance while they looked for new work also had the benefits they payed taxes for slashed in half, and were quickly shoved off the rolls by Governor Scrooge, including my poor aunt who was a teacher. On top of that I live in the south, and the bad governor was an old pal of racial segregationist senators from another era, and he repealed some laws that were intended to protect people of color, and enacted policies that actively discriminated against transgender individuals in my community. So I had many reasons to rise up with a pitchfork against him, and voted for his democratic opponent for governor even though I was initially not overwhelmed by him.

Now that he has been governor a few years I have warmed up to him, despite him still being more of a centrist than I am. I think in all fairness he has been good in response to hurricane disaster relief in my state and the response to the Covid 19 pandemic. Things have been far better managed in my state recently than in other parts of the country, and I think the guy earned re-election. I don't object to circling his name again.

I have voted for 14 different offices so far, and am approaching the last page of the ballot. There a few court justices, clerks, appellant judges and non-partisan offices that I am putting a little more research into before making a decision, but I will probably return my ballot in the mail either tomorrow or Monday. My work will be over with soon.

 

[Hermione Granger]

I am definitely hoping to not seeing one of Trumps early mouth pieces on the ballot for state governor since she is running for governor here in my state. She might share the same party as our outgoing governor, but he was a decent governor in my opinion.

 

[Ivysaur]

I've voted in every election since I became 18 -I once even voted absentee from Argentina for the European Parliament election, which usually attracts less than 50% turnout- and I have been a poll worker three times already. It's a civic duty I find, and I'd rather enjoy it as the right to vote was hard-won over many centuries of struggles.

 

[Corrin]

That being said, I vote in federal and provincial elections but not municipal. There's too much to it then.

 

[Dusk]

I'm a little ashamed to say that this was my first time voting, and I've been in the US for 20 years. Definitely glad I finally voted this year - sent my ballot in a few days ago!

You're not the only one! I.. have been of voting age for nearly 10 years now and only voted for the first time in person a few days ago... there is still much I don't understand, but I will be voting in 2 years for a new Texas governor hopefully. I need to do more research on local people too...

 

[Venonat in Space]

Hmm. It makes you wonder....tell me if i'm dumb, and PLEASE educate me on this...

Idk how to say this, but my mom is a Trump supporter. She's not a karen or anything, but...idk how to put it. I saw this one thing on TV that made me wonder, "Do we want a deadly lockdown or a safe vaccine?" It was on Fox news obviously that I saw this comment. And it made me wonder? Who should I support? With Biden and the coming of the second wave, we might have a lockdown eventually like the UK is now. But will it be the same with Trump? I presume both parties want a vaccine. I want to go back to real life. I want to go back to school in person. My main concern with this election is how the Covid situation will be handled. The first lockdown put me in a deep depression for a while, and i'm scared of...more depression. But I don't want anyone to get sick and die either.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry if I offended anyone. I just want education. I don't want to be completely one-sided to Biden or Trump. Please, I ask for the education of the...more educated here.

 

[Nah]

Hmm. It makes you wonder....tell me if i'm dumb, and PLEASE educate me on this...

Idk how to say this, but my mom is a Trump supporter. She's not a karen or anything, but...idk how to put it. I saw this one thing on TV that made me wonder, "Do we want a deadly lockdown or a safe vaccine?" It was on Fox news obviously that I saw this comment. And it made me wonder? Who should I support? With Biden and the coming of the second wave, we might have a lockdown eventually like the UK is now. But will it be the same with Trump? I presume both parties want a vaccine. I want to go back to real life. I want to go back to school in person. My main concern with this election is how the Covid situation will be handled. The first lockdown put me in a deep depression for a while, and i'm scared of...more depression. But I don't want anyone to get sick and die either.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry if I offended anyone. I just want education. I don't want to be completely one-sided to Biden or Trump. Please, I ask for the education of the...more educated here.

You don't have to support either one if you really don't want to.

In regards to the handling of the pandemic, if Trump is re-elected, you can expect how things have been to just continue on. With Biden, I think that the more likely scenario is that he does stuff like putting a national mask mandate in place and imposing restrictions rather than doing a full-on lockdown. It's a little late for him to undo most of the damage that's already been done.

Both parties want a vaccine. Everyone but anti-vaxxers want a vaccine really. It's just a matter of when they'll have a safe, effective one made and distributed.