When I returned from lunch today I was riding the elevator up to my office when I had the following conversation:Unknown stranger: Did you vote?
Me: Yeah. Did you?
Stranger: No... It doesn’t matter, it’s going to be a landslide anyway.
Me: You think Nader’s got this all locked up too, huh?
Keep in mind that I live in Colorado, which is one of the more evenly split states according to recent polls and that we have 9 electoral votes. Now this stranger may be right, this thing may be a landslide and his vote may not have mattered but I find myself hoping that he’s weeping into his loafers as the results come in tonight. The really bizarre part was that he brought up the question of whether I had voted, obviously knowing that I would likely return the question. It was like he was dying to tell me that it didn’t matter whether you voted or not.
I know every other blog is telling you to go vote today and I really wasn’t planning on doing it because I hate to be like every other blog, but please don’t be like the idiot in the elevator. Go vote. It does matter, even if everyone already knows that your state is red or blue. It matters that you vote. It’s your civic duty to vote. If you don’t do it, then I don’t think we can be online friends anymore.
What a MORON! Geez. I hope he is not one of those people that doesn't vote and then complains profusely for 4 years. Good grief.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad I already voted... I'd be devastated if we couldn't be online friends anymore! There are lots of morons out there. I actually am kind of fine with the morons not voting. Leave the voting to the brilliant people, like us.
ReplyDeleteI voted last week. That's the kind of super citizen I am.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, it bugs the crap outta me when people say their vote doesn't matter. I guess I get to decide things for them. Which is maybe best anyway.
Way to be like all the other blogs :) ha ha
ReplyDeleteSeriously - or the people that say ONE VOTE won't matter. There's enough of them that it does matter!
ReplyDeleteI hope this doesn't start a big argument or cause everyone to hate me, but... I did not vote. And I really cannot see why in New York I need to do so. Yes, my vote would matter for local elections, but I haven't followed those (for that part, I am ashamed) enough to make an educated decision, and I believe that if you aren't well-informed, you shouldn't vote even if it is your "civic duty." As for the national elections, you cannot in a million years tell me that one vote is going to make the difference in New York. You can't even tell me that a hundred or a thousand votes will make a difference. Get rid of the electoral college and then we'll talk.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I'm done antagonizing people - if you don't like what I said, then please forget I wrote this and let's stay blog friends :)
That was one of my fears: get enough people believing it would be a landslide, thinking that their votes don't matter so why bother, and then we'd come up short and lose the elections.
ReplyDeleteI can't vote (not a citizen), but I care enough that I hope others are making a difference when they can -- if I could vote, every minute waiting in line would have been worth it.
Said that, Obama did win by a landslide, so glad my fears were unfounded!
I think the whole Electoral College deal has made the individual voter a bit cynical about the difference they can make.
ReplyDeleteIn 2004, the Washington State race for governor was won by 126 votes.
Tonight, the same race, same candidates, same bat channel, is currently 51% to 49%.
Sometimes a single vote makes a huge difference.
Yay you on being in the stream. I'm a hardcore voter. I wore my sticker. All day.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Merry.
ReplyDeleteAnd, yes, I voted, so we're still blog friends. Can't get rid of me that easy, Vanilla.
Worst. Cover-version-of-Aerosmith's-Love-in-an-Elevator. EVAH! Bring back the dancing gorilla! Now there was punditry you could snap your fingers to!
ReplyDeleteLaura, I don't hate you because you didn't vote. I hate you because you put quotation marks around civic. Which i just violated with italics, so I guess I'm in no position to judge.
I don't hate you anymore.
Voter apathy makes me sad. But, this election's turn out makes me happy! Maybe it'll start a trend. Maybe next time the numbers will be even higher. Who knows?
ReplyDeleteI'm feeling quite positive today.
I've voted in every election I could, even the ones for things like alderman and town clerk. I want to live in a democracy and I want to pass democracy down to my children. Even if I had absolutely no opinion about who to vote for, or if I thought my vote was meaningless in my state, I would go to the polls and write something in.
ReplyDeleteNader did do pretty well, though.
Finally, a reason NOT to vote, and I screwed it up. I voted early and often.
ReplyDeleteVoting's kind of like sex. I only get to once every four years so when it's offered I just gotta do it.
ReplyDeleteWay to rock the vote there Vanilla!
Oh, he was totally begging you to ask if he voted. People like that make me so tired. Good for you for doing your part!
ReplyDeleteAs someone who grew up in a country with a dictatorship, defected with my family, spent a year in a refugee camp, and another 8 to become a citizen, I cannot believe how some people take their right/duty to vote so lightly! What's with all the rhetoric around the "troops dying for our freedoms", etc...? THAT is what they died for!!! In Australia it is illegal to NOT vote, and although I think that is going too far, it means everyone has to think about how their country is run. Good on you for voting, for it always matters.
ReplyDeleteI've been lurking for over a year, Vanilla. I enjoy your blog.
ReplyDeleteHey, who's the artist for the "Vote" piece that you used?
Cory, I don't know who the artist is. I Googled "vote" or "vote sexy" or something and saw that image on a couple of other blogs. Then I assumed that it was OK for me to use it since several others were using it too.
ReplyDelete