How do you cast an uninformed vote?
Last night Jason DeRusha asked Good Question: Should Uninformed Voters Stay Home?
It’s a constant message on Election Day: get out and vote. It’s generally accepted that the more voters, the better. The higher turnout, the better. But what about people who admit they don’t know anything about the issues or the candidates in a given race? Is an uninformed vote better than not voting at all?
A number of people chimed in with thoughtful response and many took the safe road saying they abstain if they are uninformed.
Now it’s honest time, at some point in our voting life we’ve all voted for someone that we didn’t know much about.
Hey, we’re all friends here, I’m not judging.
@howwastheshow ponied up some truth that inspired this post:
@justacoolcat @DeRushaJ’s GQ tonight was awesome. Seriously thought about it today. Was only informed on 50% of ballot, but voted on 75%.
When I was 18 I was known for picking based on a funny name or using the infinite-naughty-possibility-generator the write-in box. ( I know write-in isn’t exactly an uninformed vote, but for all practical purposes it’s a wasteful vote)
So here’s my question:
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Wow, you called me thoughtful…I’m so proud! And humbled.
I will vote along gender lines if I’m not sure. I often do this in judicial races, because I have this feeling that there aren’t enough women judges.
There are a lot of races for which there just simply isn’t that much information – judicial races being one, since there are such screwy campaign rules surrounding those races. However, I feel as though if I didn’t vote in the race, I might as well have not shown up. So I vote for someone who I am familiar with. I do a write in.
This is also applicable in those multi-candidate positions like school board, where you get to vote for three people, and you are only familiar with two: do a write in. Vote for your mother, or your wife. They’d be good school board members, wouldn’t they? Or shit, vote for Lizard People. At least they have a strong platform, which granted, is to feed all of our tasty children to Lizard People. But still.
Long story short: I don’t believe in voting for people you are not familiar with, but I don’t believe in not voting.