Why do you think more people don't vote?

[caty]

I have to wonder why so many people, who complain about the government, are not registered to vote. A few people I know who don't vote, say it is because the elections are not honest, so why bother?
I tell them, the more people who vote, the harder it is for any one to falsify the results.

http://www.projectcensored.org/newsflash/voter_fraud.html

[OKNancy]

1. I've never heard anyone out in the real world say they

didn't vote because they suspected the results. Mostly is they don't care either way. They just aren't interested.

[deaniac21]

2. Well stated poll question!!

[cspanlovr]

3. people don't vote because they want to stay under the radar.

[eallen]

4. The two-party system leaves most people unrepresented.

The truth is that most people in this nation have neither a party nor a candidate who represents them in any substantive form or fashion. Our system of geographic representation with winner-take-all elections leads to two major parties that are coalitions, and to politicians who triangulate among the coalitions. Many people are inadequately motivated to work for the major party that somehow triangulates to their views. The GOP today is less fragmented than the Democratic Party. That's not a good thing: its religious right base is the demographic group most dangerous to American freedoms. But it is reality. And the fragmentary nature of the Democratic Party creates a real challenge in motivating people to vote.

[emulatorloo]

33. Or they are too lazy to find out what the parties represent

The people I know who dont vote just don't care. They don't want to know.

[Us vs Them]

5. Most young people don't vote because they think it doesn't affect them

They figure it's all 'adult' stuff, anyway. I have no idea what they're talking about, though, as the decisions made today will have the greatest impact on their lives in the future. College kids, go fig.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. "All politics is local." - Tip O'Neil

If it doesn't effect them personally, why bother?

Most people don't give a rip about politics, don't like politicians (with good reason), and could care less about the antics of the people jockying for power.

If they bother to vote, it will probably be based on something akin to "charisma", "looks", or "folksiness".

Or, as H.L. Mencken so aptly put it:

“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” - H.L. Mencken

Which has been well illustrated by the likes of Reagan and both Bushes.

[cspanlovr]

7. I still say its fear of government that keeps them away.

Vote, and you get jury duty & the IRS looking into you. Many people live in the underground economy, pay no taxes, and want to keep it that way.

[emulatorloo]

10. I think you are on to something

I have a friend who never voted before but did register to vote for Kerry in '04. Almost immediately called for jury duty.

OTOH a lot of people don't care, think it doesn't matter.

[upi402]

8. media feeds them BS and distraction

discouragement and detachment set in and are coupled with effective propaganda. it works and will work if Dems will use it.
they wouldn't even if they could get media to accurately and fairly cover them.

my .02

[The Revolution]

9. Vote doesn't matter

I think a lot of people don't vote because they think that their vote won't make a difference in the end. Not just in the election results, but in general. In other words, their vote might help get someone elected, but nothing will change.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. No one's talking about the nation's real problems and campaigns are

run on sound bites.

I'm scheduled to attend a local party convention that will be endorsing school board candidates, an important position that will directly affect the young people of the city.

However, I'm really frustrated by the way the candidates present themselves. They all say the same feel-good things, such as wanting an excellent education for all the children of the district. Well, duh! I can't imagine a candidate saying that he or she wants a lousy education for all the children of the district. They then try to impress us by their list of community activities.

I don't know what I want to see. Perhaps it's specifics: What could you improve this year given the same budget? What would your ideal school system look like in specific terms, no platitudes, please? Things like that.

[emulatorloo]

12. Other -- They don't give a damn. Nothing will motivate them. EOM

[Johonny]

14. I'll go for this one

[Ravenseye]

17. Apathy

Pure unadulterated apathy. Most people I know vote, but the couple I know that didn't just plain don't care. Don't know how to, don't know where to, don't know the candidates, don't read the news (other than sports and weather), plain don't care.

[Robbien]

22. Yes. Most aren't even aware when elections are happening

Just not an important event in their lives.

[Tiggeroshii]

13. Because nobody is copying Oregon

http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=New+Ballot+Box

That is, Oregon's universal vote by mail system.

[lumpy]

15. I have heard many people say that

their one vote doesn't matter, but these are the same people who don't bother to take the time to know the issues nor the politicians. Laziness, indifference, more interestd in their bellybuttons. Sheep.

[madeline_con]

30. "... more interestd in their bellybuttons."

Well said.

[mcscajun]

16. They feel there's absolutely no difference between the parties.

I've heard them say it.

Half the time it's followed by: They're all crooks, so what's the difference?

And a smaller amount say they don't vote, because that way they won't get called for jury duty. A half-myth in most localities.

[serryjw]

18. TWO additional reasons

"They are all the same"
"I don't want to be on Jury Duty"

[marions ghost]

20. jury duty

a false fear. Nobody has to do it. Just act either intelligent or insane and you'll be kicked off the first day.

[serryjw]

21. The OTHER one is

"I'm a felon"
In CO you can NOT vote on parole, but CAN vote once on probation. NOBODY tells them this!
State by State report card
http://www.demos.org/page26.cfm?xDate=%7Bts%20'2006-05-01%2000%3A00%3A00'%7D

I can't imagine how many immigrants that do not speak English do not vote because they are NEVER registered in their native language. I registered a bunch of Russians at the library before 2004 election. Someone I met while petitioning was bilingual and translated for me!!!It is a sin that citizens are nationalized and never helped with registration

[marions ghost]

25. I didnt know that

about citizens who are naturalized being more or less left out of the voting process.

I did hear about felons being allowed once they're on probation. I'm sure they all slip thru the cracks though.

[serryjw]

27. YEP!

Read the right side of the link I furnished to determine felon voting rights in your state

[marions ghost]

19. I wonder how many people

just don't see the govt doing much for them and so ain't gonna do anything for the govt. This attitude permeates the population from academia to the truckstop.

Like angry adolescents, some people don't want to comply with overbearing authority figures. And that downtrodden mentality is just fine with the Rethuglicans. When you feel powerless, it IS HARD to want to participate. You lose that sense of contributing to the community, "it's my duty as a citizen" & all that good stuff. You can lose it overnight. I've heard it from friends before, but I relate to this attitude even more personally now that Booshco has been in power. I almost don't feel like voting anymore in a system that could inflict the likes of them on us. And a society that could let Diebold et al. hijack our elections. It's all so stressful--you just have the urge to do the ostrich thing.

Of course I will vote, but I do understand the rebelliousness that might make some, esp younger adults, refuse to be part of it. Not many people have a sense of or belief in their community, I find. They choose a false sense of "freedom" as a way to cope with it.

It's the 'Lord of the Flies' attitude, I call it.

[SmokingJacket]

23. I'm not voting for school board this year.

There are too many candidates and I don't have time to research all of them. I don't want to vote ignorantly, so I'm not going to vote at all. The amount of effort I have to go through to vote intelligently doesn't seem worth my paltry little single vote -- and ultimately, I don't care that much.

I suspect people having similar thoughts when it comes to voting in bigger elections.

The number one reason I hear from people who don't vote is, "they're all crooks!" They need to understand that some are WAY more crooked than others.

[Lefty48197]

24. Bush "won" Florida in 2000 by a ratio of 100,005 votes to 100,000.

.

[madeline_con]

32. The 5 were probably dead. eom

[Yupster]

26. I used to be an election judge and I question

the numbers of people who don't vote.

The reason is we would have our list of precinct voters that people would sign when they voted.

At the end of the day when things were boring I'd look at the pages and see who voted.

There might be 20 names on a page and 13 of them voted. Of the other seven I might know that four of them moved and don't live in the precinct anymore.

I wonder if those people voted where they now live? I don't know how those registration lists are updated, but I don't think it's very quickly because there were still people on the lists that I knew moved a couple of years ago.

Also, we had apartments in our precinct and their voting rates were far below the homeowners' rates. Was this just because homeowners have more stake in the community and are older, or is it also because apartment people move much more frequently.

Anyway, I always got the idea that a much higher percentage of people were voting than was reported. In my example above instead of 13 of 20 people voting, it was really 13 of 16 of people who still lived there.

Don't know if that makes any sense.

[Nikki Stone1]

28. "Convenience" --Getting to the polls after a long commute can be too much

That is why California is so AWESOME with the permanent absentee voter status.

[madeline_con]

29. Can we say "All of the Above"?

It's All of the Above, IMO.

[Synnical]

31. Apathy n/t