Data point

[magid]

I stopped in at my polling place on my way home from work, and there aren't lines! Well, ok, five or six people, but not lines like this morning. Though perhaps a few minutes past five is too early for the evening rush. I checked the ballot box, and 1382 people had voted, out of about 2400, with just under three hours to go.

It's been exhilarating, seeing everyone post about voting. And it gives me hope.

(Though I wonder about the people predicting about 35,000 people in Copley tonight for Kerry's rally. 1% of the people who showed up for the Sox? I mean, it's a weeknight, and late, and dark, but still. I have a sneaking suspicion someone's going to be surprised...)

Comments

[queue.livejournal.com]

Ah, so you voting twice makes up for me not voting, right?

[magid.livejournal.com]

It's one hand, one vote, right?

[queue.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, that law applies only if your local polling place uses voting machines with levers.

[danger-chick.livejournal.com]

Not if you are from IL.

[bitty.livejournal.com]

you didn't vote?

do i have to drive up to everett and kick your sorry ass?!?

[queue.livejournal.com]

Give me a fucking break. You're going to tell me it would have made a difference if the score in Massachusetts had been 1,771,382 to 1,055,146 instead of 1,771,381 to 1,055,146? Yeah, I didn't think so.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

There are also local races. There's also the principle of the thing. Didn't you register? What's the point of fucking registering if you're not going to fucking vote?

[queue.livejournal.com]

No, I didn't register.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

My bad. I misremembered a conversation (months ago, I think).

[bitty.livejournal.com]

If you don't vote, you don't get to complain. You don't get to criticize the administration. If you can't take an hour out of your day to exercise your rights, then you can't complain when bush starts to remove the rest of them.

[queue.livejournal.com]

That's about the stupidest fucking thing I've ever heard, and I'm surprised to hear it coming from someone I thought was intelligent.

[bitty.livejournal.com]

You think that it's okay to sit back and let other people make the decisions for you and then complain about their decision? Your vote would be one more statement against Bush. If you can't be bothered to vote against the guy, what the fuck gives you the right to bitch about him for the next four years? Here's somebody you believe to be evil and destroying our nation, yet you're not willing to exercise your guaranteed right in an attempt to prevent him from removing the rest?

In an election this close, every vote counts. The popular vote is becoming more and more important. Republicans in non-swing states will still vote, because their deluded waroped minds still rabidly support him. Democrats in non-swing states feel that their votes won't matter, so they don't vote. And if you don't vote, you can't matter.


But seriously, if you're not willing to take the hour out of your day to fill in a fucking oval, how do you expect the people around you to respect your opinions?

[queue.livejournal.com]

I'm beginning to see that I could give a fuck about some of the people around me respecting my opinions.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

If your opinion were that you don't care about the results, that would be one thing. I wouldn't understand it, but I could accept that a hell of a lot easier than caring (which it seems you do) and not doing anything about it.

While the electoral college still determines who "wins", at least the popular vote can show things weren't so clearcut. And every vote there for Kerry (or Bush, or whichever third party), is a statement about the sheer number of people who DO care.

[pinkfish.livejournal.com]

I wonder if at sometime in the middle of the night I will be awaken by crowds screaming either, "Let's go, Kerry (stomp, stomp, stomp stomp stomp)", or "Bush Sucks!", followed by animated crowds streaming from their homes to walk, run, or streak over to Copley Square for the midnight rally.

You know, if there is a demonstration of delight for this home team, I will probably get up and march over to Copley Square. I made it for the other three - why miss this one?

[magid.livejournal.com]

I wonder if at sometime in the middle of the night I will be awaken by crowds screaming either, "Let's go, Kerry (stomp, stomp, stomp stomp stomp)", or "Bush Sucks!", followed by animated crowds streaming from their homes to walk, run, or streak over to Copley Square for the midnight rally.
What a lovely image, really.

They've been setting up Copley since at least last Thursday, and it sounds like the performers are going on no matter what, until 11:30 or so when Kerry will appear/give a speech/etc. Though with all the voting irregularities I've been reading about, I wonder how long it'll take all the courts after the voting ends...

[ichur72.livejournal.com]

>> I wonder how long it'll take all the courts after the voting ends...

This is a prospect that dismays me.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Me, too. But with all the stories (documented and otherwise) of voter fraud, large and small, along with all the desperately close races (How? How could so many people want a liar who gets our boys killed for his own petty reasons, who is killing civil liberties, putting our country into severe debt, ignoring the environment, and...?), I can't imagine this'll be fast. Sigh. I had so hoped that there were more reasonable-minded, thinking people out there.

I wonder how many ulcers will develop in the next week or two.

[ichur72.livejournal.com]

>> I had so hoped that there were more reasonable-minded, thinking people out there.

I grew up a Democrat but have now switched to the other team, for a wide variety of reasons (many of which involve thinking). Personally, I think that the complaints you voiced above about Bush could be applied with much effort to Kerry. In any case, both sides have complaints about voter fraud. (I know someone personally who was bamboozled out of an absentee ballot by the county, which is dominated by the Democrats.) Whatever the case, this is going to get ugly.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

If only people cared about things that mattered as much as they do sports, the world would be a far better place. Not that I'm bitter or anything. (Of course, I do grant that Kerry is, well, just not quite as exciting as what the home team did recently. Sigh.)

[magid.livejournal.com]

Kerry isn't quite as exciting in the immediate sense, I suppose (though I admit to mostly being neutral to watching men hit spheroids with bits of wood or metal, to an extent that seems unnatural compared to most). But in the larger scheme, this is so much more important. *tries not to sputter* There's the lying, the war-for-no-justified reason, the slow encroaching of civil (and not-so-civil) liberties, the nepotism, etc. Oh, and a Supreme Court that we'll be stuck with likely for decades...

[bitty.livejournal.com]

Kerry is not quite as exciting as squeeze-tube cheese. This was likely the problem.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Hrm, well, it seems between that and not promoting the right kind of morals, well . . .

[bitty.livejournal.com]

Kerry is more moral than squeeze-tube cheese.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I didn't know you'd gone so far as to test the morals of squeeze-tube cheese. *leer*