You only get to complain if you voted

[Hyena Dandy]

It's something I hear a lot, and it's something I've said myself on occasion. But I think that it's something that also needs to be scrutinized before saying it, because I think there are situations where it shouldn't be used.

In fact, I think that we should have mandatory voting. Have it in a way that makes voting totally accessible for everyone, and have it in a way that people are able to turn in a ballot of "Nobody" or "Fishsticks," but I always felt that having an opt-out system is always better for getting stuff done than an opt-in.

I think it only applies to if you say a different candidate would have done better. If I think that Mitt Romney would have been better, but didn't vote, then I really shouldn't be complaining about that. Even if I think that someone like Jill Stein or Gary Johnson would have done better as president. I think you have to say something to be heard.

However, if you don't think ANYONE on the ballot would have done well for the job, you really should be able to complain. If you don't like absolutely any of the Presidential candidates, then your not voting for a Presidential Candidate shouldn't keep you from complaining about the President. If you have some objection to the political process, you should be able to opt out of it. I think if your problem is "They all suck!" then that's a fine thing to complain about. You shouldn't have to walk in and just right down your dad's name to be able to complain.

The other thing is if you're complaining about a trait that all the candidates shared. If I didn't vote for Congressman because all the congressmen on the ballot opposed gay marriage, I think I would have every right to complain about their gay-marriage opposing ways.

These are just some random thoughts on that statement.

[SongsOfDragons]

Do you get enough info on who's going to be on the ballot paper before polling day? (Might be a dumb question.)

Round here we're just about to have our third vote in about eight months. The first was a national vote for the PPCs, the second was the one I posted about on CS because our MP had resigned (and now is in prison!) and on the 2nd of May we're voting for our local council members. The second one was heavily covered in the news, especially for the small rainforest worth of election leaflets pushed through our doors...

We also have more than just two candidates on our papers too. At least we have five, and I know that's not a US thing. Here anyone can stand as long as they have a few mandated resources - I think it's £300 or so to register yourself for the running, or at least it was for the local MP vote.

For the PPC vote there was a blog that sprung up to showcase the multitude of spoiled ballots that people made, some quite creative too. Spoiled ballots work better than not voting at all, because you make it obvious for the organisers that you didn't approve of the vote itself or of any of the candidates.

IIRC Australia has mandatory voting. I can't say I dislike the idea. We fought for our rights to vote, and I'm not talking Votes for Women - one of the Representation Of The People Acts here gave everyone the right to vote, not just rich landowners!! - and to ignore them so easily is really an insult to the ancestors we have who lived through the lack of suffrage and fought for them!

EDIT: It also helps that I actually enjoy the act of voting.

[HYHYBT]

Freedom of speech does and ought to apply to everyone, not just those who vote. Even setting that aside, it depends on the nature of the complaint and *why* you didn't vote. Some people are ineligible, for example, even if only temporarily because they've moved too recently. Or the complaint might be, as mentioned in the OP, about a lack of good choices. Or local opinion might be so completely lopsided you didn't see any point in showing up; I believe it's best to vote anyway, but find the discouragement understandable. Not so much for the big national elections, but local votes are often held at odd times of the year when you might not even realize there's an election being held until seeing the results... or you might not know enough about the candidates or issues involved to have made the right choice. (I vote, for example, in the section for judges and sheriff and so forth, but don't really have a clue who the people those names are attached to are or what the differences are between candidates, when there even is more than one option.) I do not lose my right to complain because somebody set a special, one-issue election in the middle of June; instead, that itself is an additional complaint.

Last fall, we had an amendment on the ballot to allow the state to override local school boards in placing for-profit charter schools wherever they liked and funding them at twice the amount per student the existing, public, locally-controlled schools get. Most of that was hidden in the enacting legislation or whatever it's called; the amendment itself as listed on the ballot gave a very different impression, and people went for it. They do not thereby lose the right to complain if and when the state abuses the power they gave it.

[Rebel]

I'm an Australian that has lived in Canada for nearly 4 years. I'm still expected to vote in all federal elections (my home state elections too but I never hear when they are).
There's one coming up soon (I think) and so I'm going to need to head over to the nearest consulate to vote.

I remember enrolling to vote when I was 17. I was ineligible to actually vote until I was 18 but there was a strong emphasis on young people being involved in politics and having a voice in what happens in the country. There would be people who would go to all the high schools to talk to the senior students and encourage them to enroll. They would even have the enrollment forms with them.

I was slightly confused when I moved to Canada and a lot of my friends had never voted in their life. It seemed so weird to me that people weren't interested in having their voice heard in political issues. Figured it was a cultural thing.

[fireheart17]

I'm an Australian that has lived in Canada for nearly 4 years. I'm still expected to vote in all federal elections (my home state elections too but I never hear when they are).
There's one coming up soon (I think) and so I'm going to need to head over to the nearest consulate to vote.

It's in September. The joke going around is that they set the date so that those who were watching the Grand Final would be in a rush to get to the ballot office and do a donkey vote instead of an actual vote.

(donkey vote-basically going down the page 1,2,3,4 and not caring who the candidate actually is.)

[AccountingDrone]

For years whenever I run into someone bitching about election results I ask them if they voted and tell the ones who didn't that if they didn't bother voting then they have no right to complain. I am *thrilled* to be able to vote at all levels without having to pay a poll tax, answer a quiz, own property or possess a penis. I can not imagine not giving enough of a shit to consider not voting for anything that will concern me.

[Aethian]

I only tell people they can't complain when they are so sure that something should go one way that they don't bother to vote and then get pissed cause it didn't go that way. For example we had a local poll that was talking about a big park going on. So many people were against the location I thought it was doomed to fail. But I still went in and placed my vote that I liked the placement.

The vote passed by six votes. Hardly any of the ones against it voted against it and if they all voted it most likely would have failed.

[gremcint]

I've always viewed it as like a wedding, vote now or forever keep your opinion to yourself.

[MadMike]

I was slightly confused when I moved to Canada and a lot of my friends had never voted in their life. It seemed so weird to me that people weren't interested in having their voice heard in political issues. Figured it was a cultural thing.

I was one of those people until I was about 36. I never voted because I figured that no matter who you voted for, they were just going to rip you off. I still firmly believe that, but now I'll at least try to vote the crooks out.

[Andara Bledin]

If all of the people who bitched and whined about their vote never counting so they never vote actually got off their asses and voted, they might help effect real change.

But it's easier to ignore elections and bitch about the results than to actually take the time to research the measures and candidates and actually take some social responsibility to shape the government and laws you live under.

[SongsOfDragons]

It's voting day again today.

Local paper is bemoaning the expected low turnout - they aren't expecting more than 25%.

>.<

Just because it isn't a General Election it doesn't mean that the result won't affect you.

[SkullKing]

I think that optional voting is a good thing.

voting is mandatory where I live, I am in favor of making it optional

Here you have a bunch of people with no interest in politics who just vote in anyone.

There is a clown(not a pejorative term, an actual clown) who won an election without discussing politics, his commercials were all jokes and stand up acts, so when the people that were going to vote just because they were forced to, got to the ballot, they voted for the one guy they remembered.

His catch phrase was pretty much: "I don´t know what an Alderman does either. When I become one and learn it, I will tell you"

[crashhelmet]

This is something I stand by. If you refused to vote, you give up your right to complain about the results.

The worst part about it is a lot of these people that refuse to vote because they "don't like any of the candidates" miss out on voting for other offices, laws, ordinances, and measures.

If you don't like the options for one office, write in your own and move on to the next.

[smileyeagle1021]

I think the only people who have the right to complain about the results who haven't voted are the ones who can't vote for reasons beyond their control. Now, a convict who can't vote bitching about an election gains me no sympathy, you made your choices in life, and now one of the consequences is having that control taken away from you. But I do feel bad for the people who have no choice but to move less than 30 days before an election and be told "sorry, you haven't lived in your precinct long enough to be an informed voter on local issues, so you can't vote at any level"... which, I guess I can understand some rational basis on that, 30 days was not long enough for me to learn all the ins and outs of the issues that affect where I live... but, I still knew enough about national issues that I could have made an informed vote for president (I didn't run into this, but I came close).
But yeah, in general, if you don't care enough to show up to vote, then you have no one to blame but yourself when the results don't turn out like you like.

[Nekojin]

Typically, the ones who don't vote but bitch about the outcome aren't doing anything else constructive to influence the political scene in any way. Those are the people who have no real "right" to complain - they don't like the situation, but they do nothing to change the situation. By inactivity, they're tacitly allowing others to make the decisions, and expecting all those others to make the decisions that get the outcomes they like. That's the very definition of "false sense of entitlement."