American voting system sucks

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Iggy Wolf 7 hours ago

American voting system sucks

So I went to vote today. Honestly, it's annoying how much they emphasize voting, but when it comes to the actual process, it's the most mindnumbingly dumb process I've ever seen. You don't know WHO HALF the candidates on the list are. What their platform is about or what they intend to do, much less whether you ever even heard of them before. All you know is that half are Republicans while the other half are Democrats. But that tells you NOTHING. And you can't put it all on the voter, because generally speaking, people wouldn't have even known who half the people running are if they never advertised themselves.

You only know about the governor candidates for example because of their negative attack ads (which by the way, tell you NOTHING about why you should vote FOR them, only why you should vote against the OTHER candidate). It might be said that Americans have a personal responsibility to make themselves informed citizens, but they can't even do that if candidates themselves aren't INFORMING Americans of their EXISTENCE.

Even companies who simply sell products or services know that at the most basic level, you have to ADVERTISE your product so your customers are at least aware that you exist, and you are selling a product and service. If Congress and Presidents suck, and even local and state politicians, it's because Americans aren't even made aware of WHO those candidates are, why they're running, who they're running for, and how they differ from their opposition.

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Showing 1-15 of 28 comments

DarkCrystalMethod 7 hours ago

The Official Voting Guide is supposed to help with the basics. You're supposed to read that AND research so that you can see how they're lying this time.
In California our guide booklet was 30 pages... just for one statewide proposition. Over 80% of it was how to find a polling place, etc.

Iggy Wolf 6 hours ago

Originally posted by DarkCrystalMethod:
The Official Voting Guide is supposed to help with the basics. You're supposed to read that AND research so that you can see how they're lying this time.
In California our guide booklet was 30 pages... just for one statewide proposition. Over 80% of it was how to find a polling place, etc.

Wow. Talk about making it harder than it needs to be just to be aware of a candidate's policies. What happened to bullet points and summaries? "Keep it simple, stupid". Especially when they consider most voters to be no more intelligent than a 6th grade reading level. How the hell do they expect ANYBODY to read freaking 10 pages, nevermind 30?!

And that's for ONE candidate probably for ONE state proposition. Seems like it's complex by design. If voters don't know what the hell they're voting for, they're less likely to vote against VERY unpopular measures that would have prevented that candidate from winning.

DarkCrystalMethod 6 hours ago

Its only the stupid things that make it to the ballot.
The smart things like the best way to have elections get squashed before they become bills because it challenges their power.

Iggy Wolf 6 hours ago

No wonder people think there's no point in voting. Why bother voting if the actual things that would change anything aren't even reflected on the ballot? Hell, I remember back when I lived in Staten Island, the ballot sheet would at least mention what policies were being proposed by which party or candidate.

Now it doesn't even mention that. It simply has candidates names' and parties, and NOTHING else. Like, what's that supposed to tell me? They don't want people voting "along party lines" but your only option essentially IS to vote along party lines. You're sure as hell not presented with any actual policies or bills that so and so candidate supports or opposes.

DarkCrystalMethod 6 hours ago

Well, in that big-ol booklet There's just this one page that attempts to explain it... hope you understand it, good luck.

https://voterguide.sos.ca.gov/proposition/50/

steven1mac 6 hours ago

IT is your responsibility to research candidates and various propositions in the election. Failure to do so is why voting across party lines is so common.

Ice Robertson 6 hours ago

American voting system sucks

Sounds a lot like the Auckland council voting, You have no clue who you're voting for, You get a pamphlet saying a short paragraph and that's it.

Iggy Wolf 6 hours ago

Originally posted by steven1mac:
IT is your responsibility to research candidates and various propositions in the election. Failure to do so is why voting across party lines is so common.

That would be a lot easier if the tools to do so weren't spread across several websites and organizations, all whom number in the hundreds, especially with regards to local elections. We know that national elections get enough attention so that people are aware of the Presidential candidates' platform because they HAVE to debate each other. But you don't really get that in local or state politics (unless you count their negative campaign ads).

And it's not like I was even aware of HALF the people on the ballot that I would have been able to look them up, since I didn't even know who was up for reelection and who's a newcomer. I live in NJ, which mostly swings Democrat anyway. If local general elections are anything like the national one, then the vote will go one way regardless of the choice I make. Sad as it is to say.

Last edited by Iggy Wolf; 6 hours ago

Grendalcat 6 hours ago

Online research is a thing.

Last year before the presidential election, I was able to find issue statements from all six of the candidates on our ballot, not just the two from the major party.

If you don't want to do any research, you may as well not vote.

El Mythical 23 k.s.c. 6 hours ago

I think the opposite of OP. People that are uninformed don't have to vote. The reason both parties suck is because uninformed people keep going to the polls and voting for their perceived favorite team.

We have the internet. Every politician has an issues page. Again, no one has to vote. If someone goes to the polls uninformed in the year 2025 they are part of the problem not the solution.

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Grendalcat 6 hours ago

Originally posted by El Mythical 23 k.s.c.:
I think the opposite of OP. People that are uninformed don't have to vote. The reason both parties suck is because uninformed people keep going to the polls and voting for their perceived favorite team.

We have the internet. Every politician has an issues page. Again, no one has to vote. If someone goes to the polls uninformed in the year 2025 they are part of the problem not the solution. :starsandstripes:

#11

DarkCrystalMethod 6 hours ago

You gotta work at keeping this representative republic. Some guy on the $50 said that, and he knows a bit more about government than you do, pal! -(read that in TF2 Soldier's voice)

Last edited by DarkCrystalMethod; 6 hours ago

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Iggy Wolf 6 hours ago

Originally posted by El Mythical 23 k.s.c.:
I think the opposite of OP. People that are uninformed don't have to vote. The reason both parties suck is because uninformed people keep going to the polls and voting for their perceived favorite team.

We have the internet. Every politician has an issues page. Again, no one has to vote. If someone goes to the polls uninformed in the year 2025 they are part of the problem not the solution. :starsandstripes:

Then most Americans might as well not vote. Because if you want to talk about people being informed, you'd have to assume they made themselves aware of all the issues, and those issues and platforms were presented to them in a way that didn't require them going out of their way to dig out of their "magic hat" the names of the people running just so they know who's even in the running, much less what their platforms are.

The fact of the matter is, the people who vote most of the time aren't likely to be voting because they're informed. And those who did inform themselves might as well be banging their head against a brick wall, because the unintelligent voters' votes cancel THEIR votes out. So you might be right about one thing. People who are intelligent and informed should be the ones voting, but unfortunately, democracy says that "my ignorance is just as good as your intelligence".

Last edited by Iggy Wolf; 6 hours ago

#13

DarkCrystalMethod 6 hours ago

The vote of the ignorant has the same weight as those who are informed.
And that should frighten terrify you.

Last edited by DarkCrystalMethod; 6 hours ago

#14

videomike_Ultimate_Plushie 6 hours ago

Originally posted by DarkCrystalMethod:
The Official Voting Guide is supposed to help with the basics. You're supposed to read that AND research so that you can see how they're lying this time.
In California our guide booklet was 30 pages... just for one statewide proposition. Over 80% of it was how to find a polling place, etc.

I was gonna post this, thank you. But yeah why blame the voting system here? No system can just lecture you with propoganda on what to vote and how, it be massively corrupt to do that at the veyr least. Even California's isnt written by California, it's written by public action groups and purchased like an ad spot.

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Date Posted: 4 Nov @ 4:57pm

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