Voter turnout in 2014 was the lowest since WWII

Gimme something to REALLY vote about:

Say, whether the Supreme Court stole the election in 2000 and installed Bush in as President, thereby becoming traitors to the Constitution and the People in the most heinous way possible.

How about whether politicians can be bought and paid for by millions in 'campaign contributions' from corporations, who give money to both sides and end up with whoever wins in their pocket?

How about voting on whether OUR money is going to be used to spy on US, building massive spy centers and tapping every dang phone and computer in the world?

How about voting on who is to be allowed in the debates (meaning anyone qualified to be on the ballot; Gary Johnson was qualified but was not allowed in most of the debates, and most people still haven't heard of this fine man).

How about voting on whether to audit the Federal Reserve, or Fort Knox, or whether to give untold billions to 'too big to fail' banks?

How about voting on whether to have Disclosure of the Alien Presence Interacting with Earth? And ending the habit of stamping Top Secret on nearly every piece of paper the government produces?

Gimme something to sink my teeth into, verify for me that the Diebolds of the world don't and can't switch the vote, and we'll discuss it.

But give me a choice of puppets, especially one who can't seem to get anything done but work on his golf game, and one who was a bully in high school and mentioned to friends how much he liked to put on a Michigan State Police uniform and pull unsuspecting motorists over, and then grew up to be a weirdo Mormon corporate raider, and sorry, I'm not interested. It's spectacle, I'll give you that, and I'm endlessly fascinated by it, but I'd rather buy tickets to the Hague trials.

originally posted by: shaneslaughta
Well the truth is most americans are to closed minded and self abosrbed to give a damn about gubberment, politicians and polls.

We also have a serious problem with disconnecting from the cyber world and rejoining the human race.

Open question: What would happen if no one voted? Is their a default?

I agree. Voting is just too inconvenient for most people unless they think they're going to get something for doing so.

The number were low because most of the uninformed masses know nothing about how our system of government work. They know not of congressman vs senator or what they do or mean to the system because they don't know how the system works. Most cannot tell you who the VP of the US. So I have no problem when uninformed voters do not exercise their right to franchise, especially when their uninformed vote would otherwise nullify my vote.

a reply to: links234

We elect our representatives democratically

No you don't.

That is the lie of the century.

You vote for either this evil retard or that evil retard.

You still get an evil retard.

P

Oh I almost forgot.

Didn't Obama agree to a food stamp cut?

Hmmm.

a reply to: signalfire

Great post.

a reply to: tavi45

As long as the corporate media shines the light on their picks for us to choose from, we will continue to get turds as our only options. The corporate media will tell you picking someone outside their choices is insane.

a reply to: pheonix358

How is voting for one evil retard or another evil retard not democratic? It's still voting and whoever gets the most votes wins. It doesn't matter if 100,000 people vote or just 10 people.

If people stopped with this whiny bull# about 'only' two parties we might see some real candidates come forward. You've been lied to by the two major parties, don't you get it? "We're the only ones you can vote for, if you don't like it, don't vote!" There are libertarians, independents, green party candidates. Of course no one will vote for them because the big parties have told us not to.

If you think you're not being lied to because you're not voting then you've got it backwards.

a reply to: links234

I didnt vote, I think more and more Americans are realizing its a waste of time and a slap in our face. They are patronizing us with this illusion of power they call democracy.

a reply to: shaneslaughta

It is true most citizen's are captives of complacency when it comes to who will make policy on their behalf. Me thinks, it's by design. I'm not alone in this thinking.

As to your open question. Perhaps a better question is who would know if no one voted?

As for default? That happens in every election.

originally posted by: links234
a reply to: pheonix358

So a majority of voters decided they had no voice...

Think about that for a minute, 63.6% believe they don't make a difference. If half of that number voted for a third party candidate in every election this year then the third party candidates would have won, easily.

There's a very, very pervasive belief that the individual has no power. It's so pervasive that there's an entire populace believing they have no power. For whatever reason, millions of people have been told or came to the conclusion that their vote doesn't matter. It's such a dangerous and powerful lie.

If just 3 people voted in an election it would still count. If 99.9% of the population didn't vote, the election would continue.

If you think your vote doesn't matter now then it will never matter unless you make it. Politicians don't listen to people who don't make noise.

But what if the People who didn't vote didn't want to vote for the third party (mostly Libertarian/TP) or independent either?
I voted for one candidate on a ballot with three elections since I knew the other races and choices were hopeless. Sometimes we live in states and districts where one ideology is louder than the other and has been so generationally. Much like religion, political identity is seen by children. Look at how many atheists we have now.

originally posted by: links234
a reply to: pheonix358

So a majority of voters decided they had no voice...

Think about that for a minute, 63.6% believe they don't make a difference. If half of that number voted for a third party candidate in every election this year then the third party candidates would have won, easily.

There's a very, very pervasive belief that the individual has no power. It's so pervasive that there's an entire populace believing they have no power. For whatever reason, millions of people have been told or came to the conclusion that their vote doesn't matter. It's such a dangerous and powerful lie.

If just 3 people voted in an election it would still count. If 99.9% of the population didn't vote, the election would continue.

If you think your vote doesn't matter now then it will never matter unless you make it. Politicians don't listen to people who don't make noise.

This post assumes there is someone worth voting for.

a reply to: links234

72 years. I was always raised to believe that 72 was a golden number. If you divide any interest rate into 72, you'll arrive at the number of years it takes for your investment to double. I'm personally happy to see this. It tells me that people aren't willing to waste their time standing in line to vote for corrupt candidates, which tells me that they are:

A). Logical and B). Self-interested

This is the kind of generation that renaissances and revolutions are born from.

originally posted by: links234
a reply to: pheonix358

Do you realize how insane that logic is? Sixty percent of people, a significant majority, believe their vote doesn't matter. How does that make any sense?

We elect our representatives democratically, that means majority rules. The majority has decided not to rule. The majority has come to the conclusion they're incapable of rule because of the minority.

If you don't participate in the 'façade' then you've fallen for the lie that the minority is telling you.

Those that vote aren't the ones being lied to.

I didn't vote. I'm politically astute, and aware. I didn't vote because I truly had no say in this election. My congressman won by 25 points as did my governor. I don't like either of them, but even if I had voted for their opponents... I didn't like the opponents either. I'm a supporter of third parties but the truth is they don't have any power, the R's and D's have set it up so that the people who are closer to my beliefs can't even participate in the debates or be on all of the ballots.

Not voting doesn't bother me because I don't feel like I live in a democracy. It feels more like a dictatorship and this is even more true during midterm elections. Most districts have been gerrymandered so that the real question over who wins is in the primary not the general election. It's truly a one party system, and the person who gets selected to run and win is the one who appeals to the most extreme voters as they're the ones who go out and vote in a primary.

a reply to: Aazadan

How do you plan on participating then?

originally posted by: links234
How is voting for one evil retard or another evil retard not democratic? It's still voting and whoever gets the most votes wins. It doesn't matter if 100,000 people vote or just 10 people.

It's not democratic when the outcome is predetermined. Lets look at Austin, Texas. They are quite liberal yet their city is divided up into 5 districts which stretch across the state and dilute their vote so that they have no one who represents them. Instead a very liberal city that would love to have 1 or 2 Democrat representatives gets 5 Republicans who more or less ignore them.

Most congressional districts are split up this way, something like 40% of the districts out there are safely Democrat and can never change while another 40% are Republican and can never change. The entire system revolves around those 20% in the middle. Of that, only 30% of those voters are swing voters. That means that 6% of the voters are determining everything for the rest of us. It gets even worse in presidential elections. I happen to live in Ohio so I'm very familiar with being catered to. I also happen to be one of those swing voters which puts me in the lucky 1% that politicians actually give a damn about. Why should I vote for either a Republican or a Democrat who doesn't represent my interests?

On top of that, our voting machines are suspect. It's an absolute fact that the 2004 election involved hacked voting machines in a massive scale. It doesn't matter who I vote for, I would rather accept the system as the dictatorship that it is than pretend it's still a democracy.

originally posted by: onequestion
a reply to: Aazadan

How do you plan on participating then?

I stay involved on a local level and put forward ideas... there might not be a point to voting but there's a point to convincing congressmen that an idea is good. Most of them aren't evil people, they seek office to make things better.

originally posted by: links234
Voter turnout in 2014 was the lowest since WWII

Just 36.4 percent of the voting-eligible population cast ballots as of last Tuesday, continuing a steady decline in midterm voter participation that has spanned several decades.

Are stricter voter identification requirements already having an affect on elections or turnout in general?

Maybe...
Factors in play:
(1) Midterms are always low voter turnouts.
(2) Mid-Terms also have less voter turnout by the party holding the whitehouse in a second term.
All Presidents lose popularity in the second term as the new car smell wears off.
(3) New voter laws making the requirements confusing at the last minute.

Here is just a slice...
Midterms 2014
Voters ages 18-29

In the midterm years of 2014 and 2010, the percentages for the Democrat were 54 percent and 55 percent, respectively, while the Republican candidate won 43 percent and 42 percent in 2014 and 2010

OK...so virtually the same breakdown for Mid-Terms...BUT

Voters ages 18-29, a core part of the Democratic party's coalition, made up 13 percent of the national electorate this year, compared to 19 percent in 2012, representing approximately 14 million fewer young voters--an early estimate based on exit polling and the number of votes cast for the House of Representatives.

Fewer (14 Million fewer) of the 18-29 demographic voted this election, lessening the impact.
www.cbsnews.com...

The Polls are clear that voter turnout is what won the Senate for the GOP. That is why most pollsters didn't see the GOP winning by the margin they did. They polled registered voters...but how many actually voted?

The GOP voters were motivated by what has always motivated them...Anti-Obama etc.

The Dem Voters (while still the slight majority) are in a melancholy as the President is in his 6th year witth less than great approval ratings that often accompany a second term.

It doesn't excuse anything. The GOP deserve the win because their people showed up and voted, but the outcome doesn't reflect the full will of the people since fewer voted than in almost a century. Then again...it never really reflects the full will of the people since we don't have mandatory voting.

2016 Midterms plus Pres Election will be a better reflection of the country as a larger percentage of folks are driven to the polls.