The reichstag is burning. (Russian elections thread )

[Serb]

Originally posted by Gatekeeper


Constitutional amendment! Constitutional amendment! *cough* Ahem:

"We, the people of the United States of America, have the right to have ballots about local, state and federal issues with the option of "against all" available on them."

Oh, yeah! Simple and sweet, baby! And now to convince 38 state legislatures and super majorities in the Senate and House ...

Gatekeeper

You do not have this simple option?
And you call your system democracy?

[lightblue]

I think the common method of indicating your complete displeasure with all candidates is to spoil your ballot.

[Serb]

Barbarians.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by lightblue
I think the common method of indicating your complete displeasure with all candidates is to spoil your ballot.

This does exactly the same as staying home and ignoring the polls. Why waste valuable calories?

[Serb]

Because other people might vote anyway. Let say 50% of voters ignored the poll and stayed home. The result of the poll, will be considered as legitimate and those 50% percents of voters who participated, will elect one of the candidates.
On the other hand, if those 50% of participants who ignored the poll, had option to vote "against all" and actually used this option, then the result would have been different. In this case, (if option "against all" will gain the most of the votes) all candidates will be considered as loosers and new election campaign should be started, but this time without those candidates.
That's how it work in Russian law. I'm pretty surprised you don't have this option.

[Paul Hanson]

It also signals that you're not apathetic, just displeased with the choice of candidates, which is completely different.

[Harovan]

In case they check who went voting and who didn't, staying home signals it even better. It's a clear and personal statement, while making your ballot void is just being dishonest.

[Paul Hanson]

No, what I'm saying is that voting for "none of the above" shows that you want participate in the democratic process, but that you aren't a fan of the candidates. You could do this by staying at home, yes, but how can you distinguish between that and just not being arsed to vote at all?

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
Russia has a "none of the above" voting option? That's so ****ing cool; America needs it.

France needs it too

For now, the only way is to put an empty envelope in the urn, and these votes don't even affect percentage values

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
In case they check who went voting and who didn't, staying home signals it even better. It's a clear and personal statement.

No. There are many different reasons for people not to go to vote: one could simply not be arsed with democracy, one could be confused and not understand anything, one could feel he cannot take the responsibility to vote (yep, I met one of those), one could be too old or ill to go to the polling booth, one could oppose the very idea of democracy, or one could distrust the parties and refuse to vote on these grounds.

Voting "none of the above" IS an obvious, one-meaning political statement. Staying at home is far from being a clear signal.
Void votes aren't dishonest: at the opposite, they're the honest statement that you like the idea of democracy, but hate the crooks that pretend to control it currently.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Serb
It seems you have no idea what slight exaggertion means.
Example:
a) USA is dictatorship. It is a slight exaggeration.
b) USA is democracy. It is a big exaggeration.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
If Putin brings back socialism, I'll put a picture of him on my wall.

I don't expect Putin to bring back socialism. He is more likely to bring up an efficient statist bureaucracy for main economic sectors, with some role left for the capitalists. And I expect such economy to be directed towards the interest of the Russian State more than the interests of the Russian people.

I expect the Putin-economy to look fairly similar to Meiji's Japan, with the Russian big companies being less autonomous from the State than the keiretsu.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
If Putin brings back socialism, I'll put a picture of him on my wall.

How would that change any of the objections you had to him in your earlier post?

[Harovan]

Originally posted by Spiffor
No. There are many different reasons for people not to go to vote: one could simply not be arsed with democracy, one could be confused and not understand anything, one could feel he cannot take the responsibility to vote (yep, I met one of those), one could be too old or ill to go to the polling booth, one could oppose the very idea of democracy, or one could distrust the parties and refuse to vote on these grounds.

Voting "none of the above" IS an obvious, one-meaning political statement. Staying at home is far from being a clear signal.
Void votes aren't dishonest: at the opposite, they're the honest statement that you like the idea of democracy, but hate the crooks that pretend to control it currently.

Well, we don't have the "none of the above" option, golubchik. If we had it, the problem would be solved. But since we don't have it, not going to the polls is more honest than to go and void the ballot.

[Tattila the Hun]

What? Putin won? Didn't see that coming...