Do you think it's right to complain if you didn't vote?

Elections provide a choice only of who will decide the way issues that effect our lives will be decided. If none of the candidates are acceptable in how they are perceived they would handle issues of importance to you, then not voting is essentially casting a vote for 'none' of the choices available. Even those who have not yet attained the age allowing them to vote have a right to complain as they will have to contend with what government is doing and has done before they can cast a vote.

Consider the fact that with the Federal government being the primary source of taxation, redistributing money back to the States, the cost and/or effects of actions of State governments other than the one you live in and are able to vote for State and local government are imposed upon you through the Federal government giving cause to complain too.

 

most places i have been, you can abstain on those choices you feel are no choice, and still have your vote counted on those you do. so it seems to me, really kind of lame to bitch about something, when you had the chance to speak up about it, anonymously, by secret ballot at that.

i can understand walking out on a debate on the bases of lack of acceptable options, but sorry, i can't see bitching about a choice you deliberately chose not to participate in making.

there is a parallel method of voting besides the ballot though, and i don't mean violence either. the incentives that influence decisions, all of us participate in creating with every aspect of how we live in our daily lives.

 

Whether or not someone votes, I think they have the right to voice their opinion. How the opinion is carried out is what really matters.

 

Not casting a vote is a type of vote if no desirable candidate exists. Maybe winning elections should require receiving the vote of more than 50% of eligible voters?

 

well it does sort of depend on WHY you didn't vote.

thinking your vote might not be counted, or miscounted, isn't a good reason.

but actually not being allowed to vote, because you were disenfranchised by gerimandering, or other enforcement of ideological bias.
couldn't vote because there were no ballots, couldn't vote because elections weren't held, then yes, certainly.

didn't vote because there were no choices you could see as being real choices. didn't vote because all you saw were a bunch of names, about whom you realized you knew absolutely nothing.
i consider those valid room for complaint too.

 

voting is a waste of time to me but i registered to do it anyway? why? to pass the legal recreational marijuana law here. and we all complain so if you dont vote and want to complain go right ahead in my opinion.

 

If they don't vote, then they have nothing to complain about. You're either there to fix the problem or become part of it. And not voting is becoming part of it.

 

You don't lose the right to complain when you didn't vote. You just make yourself look more unconstructive (in most cases, not every non voter is part of the problem imo!) which would make you more annoying. So if one is willing to deal with people that find you righteously annoying you can execute your right to complain just the same of course.

 

if you have a choice between Hitler and Stalin and therefore choose not to vote, do you have a right to complain?

 

i've actually heard an interesting argument, that runs counter to my own position, and that is, basically, that because you didn't vote for whoever won, then yes, that gives you a right to bitch about everyone who did vote for them. i believe though, that a so called throw away vote, is a vote of no confidence, against all the choices on the ballot, which if you just stay home and boycott the vote, is less likely to be counted. and again my thing is, if everyone voted third party, instead of simply not voting at all, that would be a real and fair test, that we'll never see otherwise, as to whether or not, our votes really are counted.

 

In my opinion, I don't think ONE VOTE would have made a difference.
And besides, let's say you did vote. Do you really think who you voted for will do everything he/she promised?

So honestly, I don't think it matters lol

 

Yes because we all have freedom of speach, the freedom to express ourselves and because I didn't vote Im not one of the ones that put that person in there in the first place.

 

Damn straight complaining is okay.
As if you're vote would've made a difference anyway.
Even when the people get their way, they soon after complain.
It's a cycle.

 

People always have the right to complain. But the non voters should realize that essentially they are fucking their democracy. And what better option do we have so far? Anarchy? To rock a 'red forman': they certainly deserve a foot in their ass if they find themselves in some weird totalitarian regime and whine about the loss.

 

i used to think not, but what if none of the choices are anything you would want?
there aren't very many places where its possible to cast a 'none of the above' vote.
and how would you count it if 'none of the above' were to win?

well i know how i'd like to see none of the above be counted of course,
but how could a constitution be written in such a way as to make sure they would happen?

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on a sperate note. there's anarchy and there's anarchy, and not all of them are the worst thing that could happen.
people CAN be considerate. and if enough people were considerate enough,
we wouldn't need what so many governments spend so much of their time and resources doing now.

it may even be possible to keep people from hurting each other without hierarchy.
i'm certain there have to be better ways.

i'm not convinced 'representation' is a real thing.
now that we have instant and nearly universal communication,
i'd much rather see universal sufferage on all issues.

but also local indipendence. not on the state level, which is still too big and remote, but on a village by village,
neighborhood by neighborhood, and remote area by remote area basis.

there might not be, probably is not, any one best answer,
but if every place was a different answer,
and you could freely choose which of them to live,

i know that might be a big if today,
but i believe that's the important one

to protect and create a universal right to vote with your feet,
as well as at the cash register,
or even having more and other options not yet considered.

 

One always has the right to complain of course, but if people are complaining about politics or the result of an election etc. and did not vote they should not be suprised to get told the truth: that it is partly due to their own lack of action or their misguided principle that not voting was the best decision.
Peope have the right to tell whining non voters that action speaks louder than words any day

 

what do you do when every choice on the ballot is part of the problem?

well there are always some issues and some offices. or are there? nothing is always.

but i do vote every chance i get.

it seems to be getting worse though, how many people really and truly, right in the america i live in, who want to vote, and are being denied the opportunity to do so.

 

just draw a big dick on it if you don't like any of them.

 

lovely thought, too bad it doesn't work. we don't even have paper ballots any more in many parts of the u.s. (do people anywhere outside of the third world think the u.s. is still a free country? fooled them)