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November is just around the corner and it is one of those years when it just cannot get here fast enough. It is not because I am in dire need of roast turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy. No, it is because we have a major election coming and all of the extras that come with it.
I am glad it comes early in the month, because I will need a couple of weeks to settle my stomach. It feels like every time we go down the election highway the road gets bumpier and the traffic gets heavier. At times it seems like we will never get to the final destination.
Maybe it’s because I am one of those few people that actually takes voting seriously. Now before you start getting all worked up, I know there are a lot of people who take it as seriously. Unfortunately, in these apathetic times, we are still the minority.
It doesn’t make any difference who we are voting for, the president or a member of the school board, voter turnout has been and continues to be abysmal. If anyone wants to debate this fact I only have to point in the direction of the news coverage that will be going non stop from the time the polls open until they close.
The smaller the election, the smaller the turnout, which is a pathetic commentary on the mindset of the American public. The right to vote is the most important right we, as a democracy, have. To ignore it is a slap in the face to our country and to your fellow citizens.
I am disgusted when I hear someone say that they don’t vote because it doesn’t make a difference. They say that their vote doesn’t count which couldn’t be further from the truth. Everyone’s vote counts, every single one.
With the hours that the polls keep, and the luxury of an absentee ballot, nobody has an excuse not to vote. If those options aren’t enough, this year there are even 17 locations here in LA County where you can vote early before Election Day on October 25th and November 4th.
It is an exercise in sheer laziness not to cast a ballot. You can come up with whatever reason you want to, but none will be good enough for the rest of us who make it to the polls or drop that ballot in the mail every election.
What is even more frustrating is that it is usually the people who don’t vote who are the ones who complain the loudest about how screwed up things are in the country or their city. In the last year alone I have heard numerous people bitch about the current city council where I live.
I can’t begin to tell you how many times I have listened to somebody go off on a little tirade about how messed up things are and when I ask them who they voted for, they cop to the fact that they didn’t vote. Well I guess they get a point for being honest. No respect, but a point, whatever that is worth.
If you aren’t going to be part of the solution then, I’m sorry, but shut up! If you didn’t vote for the President of the United States the last time around and you don’t like what Dubya has been doing, then keep that in mind when the next presidential election rolls around. Between now and then keep your opinion to yourself. By not voting you have lost the right to voice an opinion.
As far as that goes, I think it should become a new law. If you are caught voicing a negative opinion about somebody who holds an elected office, and it can be proved that you didn’t vote in that election, you should be arrested. Then you should be incarcerated until that official’s term in office is up. That would not only cut down on the amount of bitching we would all have to hear from the “know it alls” who are all talk and no action, but over time it should increase the voter turnout. It would be a win-win situation.
Granted, the whole election circus at times seems to be working against itself. Even for us loyal voters it can make just getting the proper information before you vote difficult. The escalating pissing war that rages on in the media only serves to confuse the situation, especially the non-stop television wars.
As far as the propositions go, I don’t care what groups are backing them. I vote based on a two-step scale. First, how is the proposition going to impact me personally and second, whose commercial annoys me the least. Of course the first criteria is the one that really determines which way I will vote, but the second comes into play when I am sitting on the fence.
What is really sad is when people switch the importance as to which of those two should come first. There are those people who never read their Voter’s Pamphlet and base their knowledge of the propositions solely on what they see on a TV commercial, which is a serious mistake. Both sides of every proposition, to be diplomatic, stretch the truth a tad in order to get you to vote for their agenda.
Unfortunately, some people either won’t or don’t read the Voters Pamphlet. Trying to read them sometimes can be difficult, but attempting to read them is the most important thing you can do. Even so, there will always be people, no matter how the propositions are worded, that will never understand them. If I can base this on personal experience, there have been many times over the years where I have written things in this column that were simply put, well simply put.
Due to either poor reading comprehension, or what we at the paper like to refer to as selective reading, the point that I was making was completely missed. If they were misunderstanding what I was saying, those people don’t stand a chance in hell trying to wrap their tiny minds around the legal speak to most of the propositions.
As far as I’m concerned if they are attempting to read it great, at least they are making the effort. Even if they don’t, and go to the polls and guess, that’s fine too. Our kids do it on the SAT’s all the time. At least they are going and trying to make a difference. I will listen and discuss any political qualms they may have because at least they tried. The rest can tell their stories walking.
Now that I think about it, let’s make Election Day a special holiday. You can take a half day off of work, what the hell, the whole day off, if you bring in the little tab they give you off of the end of the ballot to your employer the next work day.
Those of you who already vote know what tab I am talking about. The ones who don’t, I’m sure would figure it out damn quick if having the day off to vote ever became a reality. I can’t say for sure, but I would bet you would see a dramatic increase in those voter turnout percentages if they passed it into law.
The tough part would be getting all of those apathetic fools who don’t vote to the polls to vote for it.
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