The iffy voting system is about 25% of why I am seriously considering not casting a vote this election. I feel that it won't count, why cast it anyway?

But the 75% is that I feel that none of the candidates deserve my vote (aside from some of the hopeless independants.).

I do not feel that it is my patriotic duty to vote a crook into office--my duty to my country is to ensure that I help place the best man into office, who will most efficiantly serve the people, and in this case, I feel that it is "none of the above."

I refuse to vote for the "lesser of two evils." I am still helping perpetuate evil.

On a side note--I have noticed a LOT of people voting this election based on who they do NOT want to put into office. Basically, "I don't like McCain but a vote not for him is a vote for Obama!" Or the other way around.

I HATE that. When did our voting system get perverted into preventing someone from getting into office instead of putting someone there?

Originally posted by asmeone2

On a side note--I have noticed a LOT of people voting this election based on who they do NOT want to put into office. Basically, "I don't like McCain but a vote not for him is a vote for Obama!" Or the other way around.

Not around here...for some reason in all our advanced "redneckness" some people here in my local county still refuse to vote for Obama simply because he is Black...for others it's because they "heard he was a muslim!" I have tried to question thier mindset with the proposed answer as to who should be president, and is either disregarded or met with confrontation and the age old saying "If you're not with us you're against us!" I am even able to stay in the place I rent just because I am not voting as opposed to voting for Obama.

Other theories are that Bush's practices aren't that bad. Sure unemployment may be reported as high, and even though we have just recently had 2 factory's shut down (1500+ positions total), there are jobs being created...a whole 2 positions that work for the county as building inspectors that make it much harder to get around stupidity by the contractors who are in severe need of a white president. One contractor even threatened his employees by holding thier jobs over thier head if they thought of registering to vote for Obama.

But this all is more of a local problem than anything, and I cannot say that other areas are receiving the same level of "open voting" that we are here. But if anyone runs into the same problem, it's easy to piss them off...just ask them to name ANY independant candidate, and watch the veins on thier forehead pop out

I would vote because a candidate would not have to pander to an entire state to get electoral college votes. If that candidate doesn't have a prayer in the state, he/she won't even bother. I also believe that the popular vote system would allow more candidates to run and have a chance at actually becoming president. IE: Ron Paul.

Dave your starting to get serious on us , i am getting worried about you.

Any how as an out of towner i suppose i cant really comment to much here but i will quote a film based on a rather clever british writers popular stories

'Even the smallest person - can change the course of the world'

besided if you never stick your paddle in the water , how do you expect to stear the boat?

Originally posted by SuperSecretSquirrel
I would vote because a candidate would not have to pander to an entire state to get electoral college votes. If that candidate doesn't have a prayer in the state, he/she won't even bother. I also believe that the popular vote system would allow more candidates to run and have a chance at actually becoming president. IE: Ron Paul.

It's true that because of this dependency on the electoral college, the scope of different candidates is bottle necked to the point where you essentially see the "same" candidate running at each and every election.