Contrarian
I was over on Facebook this morning getting the daily screencast online, when I noticed the big "go Vote" banner they are running. As it happens, I'm something of a contrarian on the whole "make sure you vote" thing. In fact, I'd prefer fewer people voted based on one small thing: if you can't name your current:
- Local representative (state and town/county)
- House of Representatives Congressman
- 2 Senators in the US Senate
Then please, do the rest of us a favor: stay home. An uninformed vote is worse than no vote at all. Pick whatever set of ideas you think represents you best; that's not the part that bothers me. Just make sure you have a a clue as to who is running, and what they all stand for :)
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Comments
Re: Contrarian
[Daryl Richter] November 2, 2010 8:19:06.565
I agree with you, James. When I first heard those "You must vote" radio ads start the other day I immediately thought, "If it takes hearing this ad to make you consider voting, please don't." ;)
Re: Contrarian
[W^L+] November 2, 2010 17:48:59.759
I spend 8-9 months working out of town most years, so I don't know who is on the school board, the college board, the water wholesaler board, the fire board, the sewer board, the parks board, the water district board, the water quality board, the town council, or the air quality management district board. I do not know all the judges who were up for election / confirmation / reconfirmation this year.
I do know the county supervisor for this area, the state assemblymember, the state and federal senator, and the federal representative.
With 2-3 elections per year, I couldn't keep up unless I won the Lotto and quit my job.
Do I vote? Yes. I dare say that there are few people who could name all those layers and layers of elective offices. If anything, I think it says that we need to take a chainsaw and start lopping off unnecessary layers of government, so that people _can_ know who all the officeholders and candidates are.