{"id":6234,"date":"2004-10-05T08:55:38","date_gmt":"2004-10-05T15:55:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2004\/10\/05\/get-out-the-vote.html"},"modified":"2004-10-05T08:55:38","modified_gmt":"2004-10-05T15:55:38","slug":"get_out_the_vot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/10\/05\/get_out_the_vot.html","title":{"rendered":"Get out the vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joshua Claybourn regrets<\/a> news reports that voter registration is way up<\/a> for this election.<\/p>\n

But the reality is that most citizens aren’t informed, and quite frankly I’m okay with them staying home and not voting. Why would anyone want uninformed votes determining the next leader of the free world? Most of the readers of this site are highly informed; does it make sense for those votes to be canceled out by someone who’s casting their ballot because MTV said to do it? I think not. The more voters there are, the less important your vote becomes.<\/p>\n

I have to disagree. Indeed, I’d have to disagree strongly. I’d rather have a lot of uninformed votes than only a few informed ones. Of course, I’d like a lot of informed votes best, but voting vs. not-voting is more important to our society, it seems to me, than voting-well vs. voting-poorly.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. It is a truism that those who are most motivated to vote are the ones most likely to do so. That tends to favor, in low turn-out elections, more extreme voting blocs — which leads to more extreme candidates being elected (gaining the power of incumbency) and to candidates pandering more to the extremes. Neither of those is good. More voters means the vote is likely to be more mainstream. That may still lead to a sub-optimal candidate being elected, but that will make that candidate more representative.\n
  2. Given a choice between a representative candidate and the best candidate, I have to support the representative one, on principle. Otherwise, we might as well have computers make the selection. But … who would program the computers?<\/em> Good question. As Churchill put it, democracy is the worst form of government around, save for all the others that have been tried.<\/p>\n
  3. Involvement in the civic process is a good thing — and is a good habit. Indeed, it seems to me that someone is more likely to become an informed voter by starting as a voter <\/em>than by starting as being informed. <\/em>If you want informed voters, encourage voting first.<\/p>\n
  4. The opposite of love is not hate, it’s apathy. The opposite of winning an election is not losing an election, it’s not participating in an election. Participation breeds civil strength, it provides buy-in to the process, thus to the society. That, it seems to me, is a good thing.<\/ol>\n

    I know, I know — sometimes (more often than not), I think the guy who won is a dolt, or I can’t believe that “they” voted for some piece of populist crap masquerading as a ballot proposition. But people deserve the government they get, and the best way to lose your political rights is to not exercise them.<\/p>\n

    Vote. I care less whether you are voting the same as I am or directly opposite, but that you’re beside me in another voting booth on November 2. That’s a bond of unity more important than our ideological (dis)agreement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Joshua Claybourn regrets news reports that voter registration is way up for this election. But the reality is that most citizens aren’t informed, and quite frankly I’m okay with them…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":137422,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/11\/06\/idiotic-reasons-people-are-giving-for-not-voting.html","url_meta":{"origin":6234,"position":0},"title":"Idiotic reasons people are giving for not voting","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 6-Nov-18 11:31am","format":false,"excerpt":"We're doomed.1. I was so disappointed in 2016.2. Grassroots organizing feels good and is so much more impactful than (ugh) voting.3. The Democrats aren't fighting hard enough against Trump, so what's the point?4. It's better to be an informed non-voter than an uninformed voter.5. I need to be absolutely certain\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49865,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/03\/17\/set-up-the-vote.html","url_meta":{"origin":6234,"position":1},"title":"Set Up the Vote","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 17-Mar-15 1:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I would consider proportional voting for President f it were done on a national basis; while it's being voted for only in those GOP-led states that have tended to vote majority Democrat in presidential elections, it's clearly just manipulation the rules in one's favor.But I'd rather see spotty state proportional\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6490,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/08\/26\/insane.html","url_meta":{"origin":6234,"position":2},"title":"Insane?","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 26-Aug-04 11:37am","format":false,"excerpt":"BoingBoing reports on an \"Insane plan to let military to vote using insecure email.\" The plan affects military personnel from Missouri. Quoting an anonymous contributor: Increasing voter turnout is always...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2004"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2004","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2004"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131315,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/08\/19\/voting-negative.html","url_meta":{"origin":6234,"position":3},"title":"Voting Negative","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 19-Aug-16 9:17pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A new Pew survey has some interesting confirmation of what a lot of folk have suspected about this presidential election.http:\/\/www.people-press.org\/2016\/08\/18\/1-voters-general-election-preferences\/#more-negative-voting-than-in-08To wit, a lot more people are voting negatively this election -- voting against someone they dislike -- than in the past. That's not surprising, given the low popularity of both\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/2016%2Bnegative%2Bvoting.pngimgmax%3D660.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/2016%2Bnegative%2Bvoting.pngimgmax%3D660.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/2016%2Bnegative%2Bvoting.pngimgmax%3D660.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":131216,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/08\/07\/on-protest-votes.html","url_meta":{"origin":6234,"position":4},"title":"On Protest Votes","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 7-Aug-16 2:22pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A very good article here on how protest votes for President (votes to \"send a message,\" votes for third parties, votes for write-ins, or just staying home) are pretty much futile because they don't actually succeed in doing much of anything except leaving the voting up to the folk who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/democrat-republican5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/democrat-republican5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/democrat-republican5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7081,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/11\/01\/vote_dammit.html","url_meta":{"origin":6234,"position":5},"title":"Vote, dammit","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 1-Nov-04 10:31pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Vote. Do it. Get off your ass, make the time, go in, and participate in this country's future. Don't let the last-second campaign ads and stump speeches dissuade you from...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2004"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2004","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2004"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6234\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}