All these people* can go screw themselves

[conuly]

because they're determined to screw the rest of us over even more.

* Except those who are genuinely facing structural difficulties in voting.

Comments

[rebeccmeister]

Or OTOH, hey, this is chock-full of information on what it takes to get people to get out and vote: more up-to-date systems to disseminate information about candidates and issues; making it clear that you can cast a ballot without voting for any of the listed candidates; more up-to-date systems to help with registration and absentee ballots; political parties with substantive and meaningful platforms that they stand behind; etc etc.

At least these people were all willing to speak up with specific reasons why they've decided to not vote, rather than just shrugging their shoulders and remaining silent.

[dine]

I have never wanted to boot a group of people in the head more than after reading that! omg, those self-focused idiots are super-infuriating

[conuly]

"I'm not excited enough." Well, get over yourself. Who said you're supposed to be excited about things?

[zesty_pinto]

I've told people time and again to vote even if they didn't like the candidate, that even writing in an abstain shows people you gave a crap to go to the poll and made yourself visible to politicians.

It worked to some degree with 2016, albeit in an unfortunate way with the write ins for Harambe and the like, but the point still needs to be made that laws won't cater to you unless you make yourself visible. These youths don't seem to understand that and that is why I'll probably continue to pay Social Security despite getting nothing from it by the time I get old.

[pauraque]

I would put it a different way: All these people are screwing themselves.

[author_by_night]

Like the Kavanaugh thing — I get that they’re the minority and that was an uphill battle, but I just feel like there wasn’t a big enough fight put up to that, and I think there continues to not be a big enough fight.

So... she's not going to vote? How does that logic work?

I stopped reading after that.

[conuly]

AND THE REST OF US!

[jtthomas]

Structural difficulty on my part: can’t drive, am two hours from “home”, and “home” is in such a small town that the address to send absentee ballot info to isn’t available online no matter how hard I look. Also, am queer in Massachusetts so if anyone should currently worry about specifics it’s me and those like me. Last I heard, there was a 50/50 chance trans rights would be lost.

Wishing I could vote, but alas.

[conuly]

Yes, I'd love politicians I felt really great and hopeful about supporting... but in this election, c'mon, it's "meh" or "spawn of cthulu".

[conuly]

Those structural issues aren't by accident, and they completely suck.

[silailo]

*reads article* LOL First world problems.

I live in a red section of a blue state and I still vote blue (or independent). Will the Dem house candidate win over the incumbent GOP candidate? Probably not. But I'm voting anyway because there is absolutely no good reason for me not to.

It's especially important for me as a woman because I know women fought long and hard for the right to vote, and I'm going to honor them by casting my ballot.

[kaffy_r]

But I'm voting anyway because there is absolutely no good reason for me not to.

I don't know you,, but I could kiss you. That is brilliant, and true, and should be put as a question to all of these kids.

[kaffy_r]

I couldn't get past the fifth or sixth person.; I think the Bernie Bro who got shirty because his hero did something smart and practical, rather than choosing a ridiculous hill on which to die (and to kill the country while doing so) just turned my stomach sour. They were so insanely self-absorbed, so massively ignorant, and so proud of that ignorance!

[silailo]

LOL! Also, I get an absentee ballot with free postage. There are voting guides online and one sent by mail. It takes a bit of time to read through it all, but I really would be flat-out lazy if I didn't vote. It feels good to fill in those bubbles, too, and have a sense of accomplishment.

[silailo]

I didn't understand that person's reasoning at all. Bernie and Hillary were in the same party, so naturally the losing candidate would support the winning candidate in the general election. Isn't that...normally how it works?

[kaffy_r]

Although Bernie ran for the Democratic nomination, he was for years an independent senator, who voted with the Democrats on most things and caucuses with them, but was not part of the party.

[silailo]

Yep! So, being that he ran for a nomination with the same party as her, I thought of course he would support Hillary once she won the nomination. I confess I was pretty caught up in the fervor of the primaries, so like a lot of Bernie supporters I felt disappointed in his support of Hillary, but in retrospect I realize he was only doing what was practical and reasonable.

[dewline]

I'll take "meh" over "spawn of Cthulhu".

[brokenallbroken]

Right? I'm not excited about going to the dentist or paying my taxes.

[archangelbeth]

I am excited to support most of the local ones! And moderately excited to support the federal candidate! (I'd be more excited if he'd been the one we were stumping for in the primary, but hey, the really annoying one(s) didn't win, so GOOD!)

Sorry yours are meh. Meh will help strengthen the position of the exciting ones in other states? (she said hopefully)

[julian]

So, this is going to sound weird, and I totally get that you might not want to do this, and/or don't have time. (Actually, it seems much more likely you just don't have time, given as you're in school, which is totally reasonable.)

But, depending on where in MA you *are*, and where you have to get to, I'd maybe be able to give you a ride? I live in Easton, but I was planning on hooking up with Democrats to drive folks to the polls anyway. This would just involve... more driving. My main time constraint is that I have to be in Brockton by I think 4pm for an Election Protection shift.

If you don't want to spend that amount of time in a car with a random stranger, I totally get that.

[sathari]

Yeah, and the thing is, even if the ones on your own ballot aren't exciting to you--- chances are that there are ones somewhere else who are, and a vote for the Democratic candidates in your state is a vote to back up, say, Beto O'Rourke in the Senate (as an example of a candidate who's gotten a lot of national squee). (The Bernie bro in particular infuriated me, because does he not understand how the electoral process works AT ALL? And also does he not understand that his personal hero there needs at least 51 votes in the Senate, if not more, in order to get any of the policy positions he espouses anywhere near passing, and likewise needs probably not just a majority but a veto-proof one in the House as well? A vote for any Democrat is the closest you can get to voting for your favorite Democrat/Democrat-adjacent pol.)

[siderea]

Please ask for help? Like, these may be solveable problems, for someone else. Like, if you have the absentee ballot, and all you need is the address to send it to, and it's not on the web, I'm happy to make a phone call to find it out. ETA: tripped over the universal Massachusetts answer:

Board of Registration or Election Commission
City or Town Hall
[Your town name here], MA [your town zip here]

(Thanks, Secretary Galvin!)

If you don't have the ballot, I believe it's too late to get one now. You'd have to vote in person. But that might have other solutions. ETA: I was wrong! "Absentee ballot applications must be received by your local election office by 12 p.m. on the day before the election". You'd have to get it there by Monday noon. I wonder if they have a fax machine. Do you have a scanner? "Applications may be submitted in person, by mail, fax, or by e-mail; however, the local election official must be able to view the signature of the person requesting the ballot. If the application is being submitted by e-mail, a scanned copy of the request must be submitted."

ETA3: Also, FYI: How to contact the election officials for every municipality in MA. The absentee voting rules.

[siderea]

Except those who are genuinely facing structural difficulties in voting.

No exceptions. The disabled chick in Arlington, MA? She's twenty-seven. She had eleven goddamned years to find a goddamned stamp to mail in her registration to vote before this election. I'm not buying her lame-ass excuse that because she is disabled it's so damn hard for her and that's why.

Do you have any idea how relentlessly the Commonwealth of Massachusetts attempts to register voters? This woman had to throw out I don't even know how many voter registration cards in her life. They included the form in the reg packet for Medicaid and the paperwork for MassHealth. If the state finds out you exist, they'll send you a registration card just in case maybe you haven't registered to vote yet, whomever you are. I probably could find one right now going through my recycling, and I've been registered to vote at this address for almost 25 years.

[jtthomas]

I greatly appreciate the offer, but I’m unable to accept for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which is being in tech rehearsal for theatre at current. That’s twelve hour days, day after day, final rehearsal Tuesday .

Wish I could accept.

[jtthomas]

Thank you! This explains a lot: my town apparently doesn’t even have an election commission to send the application to. I have to hope the address given is correct, though, because my town has at least three so-called town halls and each is entirely separate.

I’ll try to email it today, thanks. I have a scanner and a teeny bit of free time.

Thank you!

[lydy]

The thing I wish they understood: the alternative to participatory democracy is, eventually, revolution. Usually with a period of increasingly brutal tyranny preceding it. When people opt out of the system, it stops responding to them. And even when you don't win, participating causes the politicians to notice you, and step a bit more lightly. I fear guillotines and revolution. It is brutal and damages infrastructure which will cause many thousands of deaths. Voting is your best way to avoid this.

[julian]

I heart you.

[julian]

Ah. Yeah, the end run up to performance is packed. Glad Siderea found the solution, and have a good performance (and/or break a leg, depending on the your superstitions).

[tielan]

Ooh, let me guess without clicking. It's that "why these young people aren't voting" article!

(Which is totally not designed to encourage other young people to be lethargic about something which their involvement might actually change. Because otherwise they'd have posted "why these young people ARE voting" at the same time to counter it.)

[conuly]

That's amazing. NY doesn't work half that hard.

[conuly]

Yup, that's the one.

[siderea]

I just finally got around to reading about voter suppression in North Dakota, and how they are requiring street addresses. I was gobsmacked. Here in MA, our voter registrations forms ask for a street address and then has a box for a map, saying "Using landmarks, draw the location of the place where you live if you cannot describe that location as a number and street or as a rural route and box number."

This is what democracy looks like.

[conuly]

Here in MA, our voter registrations forms ask for a street address and then has a box for a map, saying "Using landmarks, draw the location of the place where you live if you cannot describe that location as a number and street or as a rural route and box number."

I wonder how often that really comes up nowadays, but it's good that they're prepared for this!

On a related note, one of the pro-cursive scare tactics is that you can't legally sign your name without cursive and so can't do a long list of official things, like vote. Well, I can see some corrupt or ignorant election official trying that rule, but it would constitute a literacy test. Everywhere you sign your name, you can legally sign with an X, or a stylized image, or in print. However you habitually make your mark, that's your signature.

[conuly]

Interestingly, the last time I said this was somebody commenting that she knew she should eat more salads* but she just didn't find a bowl of lettuce "exciting". I was shocked at the idea that dinnertime was supposed to particularly do more than nourish you. Did she really describe hamburgers or pasta as "exciting"?

* Debateable - there's no reason she can't eat the same bulk of cooked fruit and vegetables if she really hates salad.