Don’t throw your vote away. Vote on 11/6

Odd year elections are decided by turnout more than the even year elections.  If you stay away, you are even more likely to get your least liked candidate.

If you live in Virginia, this applies very much to you.  It is a election that will be decided more by who stays away than by who shows up.  If you don’t live in Virginia but have friends or relatives in Virginia, please remind them to vote.

My wife, an election judge, thinks I am too negative with this sentiment.  But if I don’t shout it from the rooftops…

Ralph Nader stealing votes

Blaming Ralph Nader for Al Gore’s defeat by George W. Bush is an issue that will probably never go away.  It came up again a few weeks ago in the Letters section.

The figures below for the 2000 election are from www.electproject.org/2000g and Wikipedia “Spoiler Effect, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoiler_effect

In 2000, Florida had a voting-eligible population of 10,666,193.  5,963.110 ballots were cast for a Presidential candidate.  Ralph Nader received 97,421 of those votes.  That was only 2.07% of the no-shows, not much above those who didn’t even vote for a Presidential candidate, 1.6%!!!

We can only guess how the no-shows would have voted.

I would say that we had something similar with the 2016 election.  Turnout for the Presidential vote was 59.3%.  How would the 40.7% who didn’t show up have voted?  We really didn’t know.

It is too true for election after election:

The only way
To throw your vote away
Is to stay away.

Remember to vote for local offices on November 7.  The local results often affect us more directly than the national elections.

Published in Reader Weekly, 2017-10-23 (as far as I can tell, letters are not published online).

For a deeper analysis, see https://www.truthdig.com/articles/dont-fall-for-it-the-nader-myth-and-your-2016-vote/.

Donald Trump came in third, not second

Forrest Johnson’s latest column in the Reader Weekly stated that Donald Trump came in second ("Dear President-Elect Donald the Clown").  The reality is that Trump came in third; the real winner was a de facto “None of the above”.

Wikipedia gives the following figures:

Turnout - 55.3%
Trump -  62,979,879 45.95%
Clinton - 65,844,954 48.04%

Neither received a majority of the votes, but Trump is acting like he has a mandate.  In almost every election (too many) where a candidate doesn’t get a clear majority, the winner acts like he did.  If we didn’t have the Electoral College mucking things up, Clinton probably would act like she had a mandate.

In this year’s election, Trump received the votes of 25.4% of the electorate.  Clinton did only slightly better with the votes of 26.6% of the electorate.  This is not the way to run a “democracy”.

Few candidates have the humility to admit that more people didn’t show up than voted for him or her.  This holds for local elections as well as national elections.

It is far better to show up and leave a slot blank than to not show up at all.  In the first case your vote “counts” because you are part of the electorate.  In the second case your “vote” will never be counted.

The Election Project has slightly different figures, but the result is just as bad for democracy.

Turnout - 60%
Voting Eligible Population - 231,556,622
Ballots - 138,884,632

We will only have a democracy is when all eligible voters truly believe the following:

The only way

You throw your vote away

Is to stay away!

Quotes of the Day, misdirected politics

 “It’s just more about getting the other people than worrying about the American people.” Christine Etima, quoted in "Immersed in the election, but unable to vote", Duluth News Tribune, 2016-11-05

"But not making a choice — sitting out the election — is to turn our fate over to others."  Ann McFeatters, Duluth News Tribune, 2016-11-06

Elections are not won!

They are given away!

Today’s Star Tribune had a good example of this in an article about the 3rd Congressional District of Minnesota  It was a chart in the printed edition showing voting results for the last 4 biennial elections.  it is a tally of percentage votes for president, Congress, statehouse, and governor.  The percentage of Democratic votes is up in Presidential election years and down in off-years.

What would the elections been like if all those stay-away Democrats had shown up?  They certainly helped Republicans win.

The only way
To throw your vote away
Is to stay away.

If you don’t show up because you don’t like Hilary Clinton, you might help elect Donald Trump.  Just like the stay-aways in Florida helped elect George Bush in 2000.

“Dollars don’t vote – you do” - David Brat

The full quote is “What you proved tonight is that dollars don’t vote – you do.”  See
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/david-brat-s-win-143742269.html

David Brat defeated Rep. Eric Cantor in the primary for the Republican nomination for the U.S. House District 7 in Virginia.

What was really proved is that elections are determined by who shows up and who doesn’t show up.

See also Politics: Don Givadam wins again.

I would like to amend my advice about voting with a more positive spin:

Always vote because every vote always counts.  If you stay away you give the election away.

Politics: Don Givadam wins again

Many a commentator is making a big deal about Representative Eric Cantor’s loss to a “Tea Party” candidate in the Virginia Republican primary.  But few look at how many actually voted.

From http://electionresults.virginia.gov/resultsSW.aspx?type=CON&map=CTY

Unoffical results 2014-06-11 15:22 EDT
Eric I. Cantor 28,902  44.45%
David A. Brat  36,120 55.55%
Total votes 65,022

However, there are 473,032 registered voters in Congressional District 7 which means that 13.75% of them voted for either Republican candidate.  Assuming that these registered voters are evenly split between “Republicans” and “Democrats”, then we could say that 27.5% of the registered Republicans bothered to show up.  Does that mean that 72.5% of the registered “Republicans” don’t care for either candidate or just plain don’t care to vote. If there are more “Republicans” than “Democrats”, the percent of “Republican” no-shows is even worse.

But, some who voted for Brat consider themselves “Democrats”.  They voted for him to get rid of Cantor.  See these admissions in the comments to http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/12/us/politics/after-eric-cantor-primary-defeat-house-republicans-take-stock.html  These “crossover” voters are probably a tiny percent of those who bothered to show; still, their votes won’t be there for Brat in November.  Also, how many Cantor supporters will be no shows in November?

I think we should get away from party primaries and have open primaries.  Those who didn’t give time or a dime to a political party should not be choosing a party’s candidates.

No matter your political preference, the lesson here is:

Always vote because every vote always counts.  If you stay away you give the election away.

See also "Dollars don't vote – you do" – David Brat.

The Fable of Sid Citizen; a vote that "wouldn't count" but did matter

Sid Citizen considered the three candidates for mayor of Wherever - Moe, Joe, and Zoe.

Sid didn’t like Moe because he thought Moe’s views were off the wall.

Sid thought Joe was rather ordinary.

Sid thought Zoe had good ideas but he didn’t agree with her plan for better streets.

So Sid stayed home.  After all, his vote wouldn’t count.

Moe won!  By one vote!

Democrats elect Republican Congress

Come on!  Diehard Democrats won't vote for Republicans!

They don't have to vote for Republicans to elect them to Congress.  All they have to do, is they have so often in the past, is to not show up on Election Day!

See http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/01/us/politics/democrats-scramble-to-stave-off-midterm-disaster.html.

Stop crying about money in politics and voter disenfranchisement.  Show up and vote!  If you don't, you may find yourself disenfranchised in the future.

Which is the largest political party?

According to Robert Reich, the largest political party is the party of non-voters.  See "The Politics of Fear and the Party of Non-Voters" on his  blog, 2012-10-09.

My own take was published in today's Duluth News Tribune at http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/247683/group/Opinion/ and follows

Will another election be given away by no-shows?

Consider that more people have stayed away in most elections than have voted for the eventual winners.

The following data is compiled from the American Presidency Project at presidency.ucsb.edu/.

Since 1980, turnouts varied between 47 percent and 53 percent of the voting-age populations. That means that more people stayed away than voted for the successful candidates.

If we multiply the turnout by the winner’s percentage of votes cast, we get:

--26.6 percent for President Reagan in 1980
--31.2 percent for Reagan in 1984
--26.8 percent for President Bush in 1988
--23.7 percent for President Clinton in 1992
--24.1 percent for Clinton in 1996
--24.6 percent for President George W. Bush in 2000
--28.0 percent for Bush in 2004
--30.4 percent for President Obama 2008

No matter who you favor, consider that if you stay away from the polls because you don’t want to vote for “the lesser of two evils,” you actually may be helping elect the candidate you consider “the greater of two evils.”

If you want a better democracy, show up on Election Day, vote for your choices, and proudly wear your “I voted” sticker.
Melvyn Magree
Duluth

- End of letter

And remind your friends and relatives to vote!

Quotes of the day - Magical thinking still persists

"[I]f the science didn’t prove what it had been told to prove, then the science had been tampered with by Satan."

In 2004, the Union of Concerned Scientists issued "Scientific Integrity in Policy Making", signed "by more than 60 of the country's most accomplished scientists".  "The eight years that have passed since its publication have brought with them not only the illusion of “The Magic Kettle” on Wall Street, but also the election of President Barack Obama in the belief that he would enter the White House as the embodiment of Merlin or Christ."

Lewis H. Lapham, "Magic and the Machine", republished in Utne Reader, originally in the Summer 2012 issue of Lapham's Quarterly.

Science doesn't agree with us that there is no global warming, so we'll find a scientist paid by a fossil fuel company who agrees with us.  And so, the globe is still warming.

Barack Obama didn't deliver all the "Change" that we wanted, so we won't vote for any Democrats in 2010.  And so, the stay-at-homes gave more power to Obama's opposition

Ah, so often magical thinking gets just the opposite of the result desired.

The globe is still warming and even faster because many efforts at slowing it were stymied by politicians.

The stay-at-homes didn't cast their votes for Democrats and so more Republicans opposed to Obama were elected.

The coming battle of the no-shows

The 2012 elections may be determined, not by who votes, but who does not vote.

If President Obama doesn't actively support gay marriage, many gay rights supporters might stay away.

If President Obama actively supports gay marriage, many who don't care for the issue might stay away.

Because Mitt Romney is a Mormon, many "conservatives" might stay away.

If Mitt Romney wavers on any of the "conservative" issues, "conservatives" might stay away.

If Mitt Romney strictly follows the "conservative" script, many RINOs might stay away.

Wherever you stand on the issues, don't give the election to the candidate with whom you disagree the most.  Show up and vote on November 6, 2012!

Remember: the 1% may have the money but the 99% have the votes!

So-called "Democrats" handed another U.S. House seat to the Republicans

Republican Bob Turner had "an upset win" over Democrat David I. Weprin in the Ninth Congressional District of New York. Many who call themselves Democrats just didn't show up! According to the Associated Press it was a "light-turnout election". I haven't seen any exact figures yet, but I would guess that it was way less than fifty percent. Yet here are three times as many registered Democrats as registered Republicans. Supposedly, many Democrats were dissatisfied with President Obama and didn't vote. Don't these people realize that a no-show is really a vote for the opposition?

A couple examples of how some "discourse"

I posted a comment to "American Angst", Jeremy Siegel, Yahoo Finance, 2010-11-17, http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/111333/american-angst, very similar to the webmail I sent to Gail Collins about projecting how some people voted to being what all people wanted, http://magree.blogspot.com/2010/11/republicans-do-not-have-peoples-support.html.

As of yesterday I had two replies.  I'll let you judge how germane they are to the issue of voting.  I chose not to honor them with a reply.

On vote count for Democratic Senators
Yes, but many of these folks were in cemeteries, so they had little choice.
-----
It was not clear to only those with tin ears.
       
The message to all parties in the recent election was that YOU WORK FOR US. Start doing what you are suppose do or we will come after you.....elephant, donkey, green or whatever.
-----

What neither poster seems to understand is there are a lot of people with differing views, many not in agreement with theirs.  The first demonizes these "others".  The second assumes that all the voters have an agenda that is different than that of the politicians.  What the second poster doesn't understand is that some people were willing to keep an incumbent in office and some people wanted the incumbent to be replaced.  This is true of either party.  Some incumbents of both parties were returned to office; some incumbents of both parties were not returned to office.  And far too many people didn't even care to cast a vote for or against an incumbent.