uspol, exhortation
If it is legal for you to vote today and you haven't yet, please do so.
Even if you haven't registered: many states allow same-day registration.
Even if you think your vote won't matter: margin sizes matter. (And not just to politicians, but to your neighbors, who need all the support they can get.)
Even if you think others will ignore your representatives: they don't even have to ignore anything if you do it for them.
Even if you think an institution is corrupt: take an hour to vote for small improvements (or even the least-bad option), then keep pushing for larger ones.
uspol, exhortation
@aschmitz if all of the meaningful decisions in your district were made weeks ago during closed primaries that half of voters do not get to participate in, do you really think that the ratio of democrats versus republicans in the general election is a more meaningful signal than the ratio of voters versus nonvoters?
uspol, longish
@Lady Yes, in a few different ways. Per a number of state politicians' staff I know, nonvoters basically don't get counted, while even just voting a ballot but leaving a race blank is more of a signal (which I intend to do for several races). Additionally, when reporting on results (or viewing them from your locality), all you see is the number of votes that happened, not how many people decided to sit it out, and that matters for anyone trying to figure out how much of their neighborhood supports them.
In the election itself, even the slimmest majority is a win, but the margins matter for what people feel they can do for the next N years. (And, as above, the ratio of ratios matters: if the Democratic Senator got 70% of the vote and the Representative got 55% and a bunch of abstentions, that provides additional information even if it doesn't change who gets seated.)
uspol, longish
@aschmitz if politicians do not view increasing voter turnout as part of their mandate, that just makes me desire less to vote for them 😞
uspol, longish
@Lady I mean, they do, but not voting at all provides effectively no signal: people try to increase turnout every election, and usually you're lucky to bump it up by a couple percent from the last election. (Actually sustained outreach often does a bit better - and is obviously what I'd prefer - but you're still talking single-digit percentages: most people are just not that politically involved.)
In practice, being a voter means you're much more likely to have a say, whether you like it or not. (I don't love it! But we are where we are, and we're not getting a spherical candidate on a frictionless plane any time soon.)
uspol, longish
@aschmitz i disagree. i think that if ballots were mailed to every address alongside comprehensive voters guides, voter turnout would increase by more than a couple percent. i think that when voters feel like they are making an actual choice instead of rubberstamping a decision from primaries they had no say in, turnout increases by more than a couple percent. i think that if people got a paid day off of work on election day, voter turnout might increase by more than a couple percent. when polling lines are short and polling places numerous and the experience of voting is fast and enjoyable and makes people feel connected to their community, voter turnout probably increases by more than a couple percent. i think there are many things that governments can do to increase voter turnout quite considerably
