Semi-Political Rant
Nov. 3rd, 2004 02:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
newnumber6Okay, so the US election is over. I'm in Canada, so I mostly take an idealistic interest. And, well, the one I was rooting for lost. Oh well. Not going to dwell on it; it's a sucky system that the only choices real were poor ones (I still wish McCain won the primaries in 2000 - he's a republican I could respect)
Anyway. Enough on that. What I really want to talk about is something that pissed me off, something done by both sides - trying to invalidate votes, or screw up the system. From people who called potential voters and lied to them by saying things like 'a parking ticket disqualifies you from voting, and if you try you'll be put in jail', to trying to find some pretext invalidate absentee ballots because one side thinks they'll be mostly for the other guy, to the same thing with registrations, to people who register others to vote and then throw out the registrations of anyone not in the party. This is above and beyond the standard and somewhat tolerable lies of campaigning - about your policies or the policies of the other guy. This disgusts me.
The goal of anyone in a democracy should be that everyone who wants to vote should have their vote counted.
Even if they disagree. Like Voltaire's classic, "I disagree with what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it," anyone involved in the political process should have the opinion that, although you might disagree with who they'll vote for, you'll do whatever you can to make sure that vote counts. If you want to discourage people from voting, that's okay (I'm of the opinion that people who aren't really informed about the issues _shouldn't_ vote), but don't lie and tell them they can't when they can, or find a reason to disqualify their vote. The districting/electoral college system does enough of that already.
I realize I'm probably preaching to the choir here... I expect no one on my friendslist would support such things, and those who are involved in such shenanigans are a small minority. I really think that anybody involved in these activities, on either side, is arrested. If there's no other applicable charge, Treason is good enough for me. That's how much it disgusts me. When I first heard people were requesting UN election officials to oversee the US election, I was amused. Now I'm just very, very sad at how much it was needed. I can only hope that the tactics on both sides cancelled each other out, and that the result was really the will of the people. Okay, I suppose part of me hopes that it wasn't the will of the people - I'd feel better about the people, then, and part of me would like to see a huge cheating-by-Bush scandal break. But those are another topic.
Anyway. Enough on that. What I really want to talk about is something that pissed me off, something done by both sides - trying to invalidate votes, or screw up the system. From people who called potential voters and lied to them by saying things like 'a parking ticket disqualifies you from voting, and if you try you'll be put in jail', to trying to find some pretext invalidate absentee ballots because one side thinks they'll be mostly for the other guy, to the same thing with registrations, to people who register others to vote and then throw out the registrations of anyone not in the party. This is above and beyond the standard and somewhat tolerable lies of campaigning - about your policies or the policies of the other guy. This disgusts me.
The goal of anyone in a democracy should be that everyone who wants to vote should have their vote counted.
Even if they disagree. Like Voltaire's classic, "I disagree with what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it," anyone involved in the political process should have the opinion that, although you might disagree with who they'll vote for, you'll do whatever you can to make sure that vote counts. If you want to discourage people from voting, that's okay (I'm of the opinion that people who aren't really informed about the issues _shouldn't_ vote), but don't lie and tell them they can't when they can, or find a reason to disqualify their vote. The districting/electoral college system does enough of that already.
I realize I'm probably preaching to the choir here... I expect no one on my friendslist would support such things, and those who are involved in such shenanigans are a small minority. I really think that anybody involved in these activities, on either side, is arrested. If there's no other applicable charge, Treason is good enough for me. That's how much it disgusts me. When I first heard people were requesting UN election officials to oversee the US election, I was amused. Now I'm just very, very sad at how much it was needed. I can only hope that the tactics on both sides cancelled each other out, and that the result was really the will of the people. Okay, I suppose part of me hopes that it wasn't the will of the people - I'd feel better about the people, then, and part of me would like to see a huge cheating-by-Bush scandal break. But those are another topic.
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no subject
Date: 2004-11-03 10:57 pm (UTC)Where voting isn't just a right, it's *mandatory*.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-03 11:24 pm (UTC)Maybe it's because I've been known to not vote myself - were I in a situation like the US this year, I certainly would, but there are times when a vote really doesn't matter because the decision's pretty well already set for your area, and it just wastes some time out of your day.
If someone did make voting mandatory here, the first person I'd vote for would be the person who promised to cancel that law. ;)