Obama Takes 23 Point Lead Over Romney

[Wezil]

Making voting mandatory is a poor solution to declining voter participation. A more productive route would be to examine why people aren't voting. For a good many it has nothing to do with laziness but everything to do with refusing to participate in a broken system. Mandatory voting lends the system legitimacy it may not deserve while avoiding the actual problems.

[Lorizael]

Older people are more likely to vote than younger people are, so if we just wait a few decades, the problem should fix itself.

[Wezil]

If so, shouldn't participation rates be increasing as the boomers age?

[kentonio]

For a good many it has nothing to do with laziness but everything to do with refusing to participate in a broken system.

I'm not sure how big that proportion of the non-voting population really is in comparison to the lazy/don't understand it crowd.

[Wezil]

I think it is significant but can't be arsed to search.

I'll concede many are in the lazy/uninformed camp but I have to agree with earlier comments - I'm not sure I want them voting anyway.

[Wezil]

I voted Federally last time out as preventing a Conservative from coming up the middle in our buggered FPTP system was important.

I did not vote provincially as all 3 contenders were equally bad and without PR I couldn't cast a vote I could feel good about. I've sometimes spoiled my ballet in such situations...

I rarely vote municipally. So long as my basic city services are looked after I'm happy to let others decide the extras.

[Jon Miller]

Locally it is difficult to know what the candidates will do unless you are very involved.

JM

[Jon Miller]

Locally I pretty much always vote for the socialist candidate or for the challenger (since I figure the incumbent has an advantage, so if I don't have enough information (which outside of one or two things in the newspaper at most, I don't) I vote for the challenger).

JM

[Wezil]

Local government does have the most effect on people's daily lives yet usually garners the lowest turnout.

For various reasons the decisions of local government just happen to be less important to me.

[Elok]

I hit all the checkboxes.

Including vegetarianism, and the one that says you picked your beliefs purely to be an elitist contrarian ass?

[C0ckney]

Local government does have the most effect on people's daily lives yet usually garners the lowest turnout.

For various reasons the decisions of local government just happen to be less important to me.

well local politics tend to involve people fighting bitterly over minimal differences in order to decide who gets to organise rubbish collection. there's not really much room for big differences in ideology, although competence/honesty can vary a lot.

[C0ckney]

Making voting mandatory is a poor solution to declining voter participation. A more productive route would be to examine why people aren't voting. For a good many it has nothing to do with laziness but everything to do with refusing to participate in a broken system. Mandatory voting lends the system legitimacy it may not deserve while avoiding the actual problems.

my thoughts exactly. the biggest problem is apathy and the apathy is caused by the broken system. if you make so that a large proportion of people's vote don't count, then it should come as no surprise when a lot simply decide not to bother. for me, under an FPTP system, it's astonishing that so many people do vote.

we have compulsory voting in brasil. it does nothing to make people more involved in politics, but it allows a whole range of corrupt practices to thrive. politicians literally buy vote from the poor. especially in the more backwards areas. there have been cases where the politicians man will go around and offer poor people part of something to vote for their guy, with the promise of the rest of it after he wins. a typical example might be shoes, the guy will give everyone a right footed shoe, with the promise of a left footed one after their candidate wins the election, but it can be anything. false teeth was my favourite example. people were given the bottom half and promised the top half, after the election, which never materialised. when this was discovered there were pictures of a load of poor people with no top teeth and a gleaming set of bottom teeth, and of a huge warehouse full of the other half of the dentures.

[Kidlicious]

And also why democrats are across the board statistically more educated and intelligent.

http://articles.cnn.com/2010-02-26/health/liberals.atheists.sex.intelligence_1_sexual-behaviors-liberalism-exclusivity

I hit all the checkboxes.

And you don't even read what you post. It says this data should not be used to make stereotypes. What does that say?

[Asher]

I'm not stereotyping, I'm responding in kind to other broad generalizations.

It says you are not very bright.

[Al B. Sure!]

I think political beliefs, when not indoctrinated by parents/surrounding community, as they most often are, are a function of personality type. Would a very competitive person be attracted to socialism? Of course not. There are definite personality analogues to general political persuasions.