Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Civic Duty Reminder

Please don't forget to vote!

If you don't participate in the democratic process, you have no right to complain about the results (opting out is a copout).

I love the mail ballot option in El Dorado County. I also love being back in California because they actually send you information on what you are being asked to vote on.

4 comments:

Jacob said...

Being able to complain without actually doing a damb thing to fix the problem (like voting) is an epidemic.

I registered for permanent absentee, so I get my ballot in the mail a few weeks early. I can take my time and fill it out then just mail it in.

Cmyst said...

I know this sounds crazy, but I love all the information they send us in Cali. I was one of those dumbs**ts who voted for a couple of loony-tunes party candidates in Illinois "because their names sound so nice". I would do an eenie-meenie: pick half women, half men, etc. I felt so awful when my "guess" turned out wrong, but there was so little information back in those days on the district races.

I can't WAIT to vote.

patient renter said...

I was just assuming that they did this in every state - send you information on all the candidates, propositions, etc. Since most people don't do their homework, it's a really good thing to have this stuff sent to them.

Buying Time said...

"Since most people don't do their homework, it's a really good thing to have this stuff sent to them."

I tried to do homework in Virginia, and it was almost impossible to find balanced and informative information.

California really gets this right. It gives its residents an equal opportunity to be informed (outside the hype and media) which is essential to a properly functioning democracy.

California has also done an excellent job of improving the cost/benefit problem that citizens face. In general, most of us don't directly benefit much from voting. Thus it is important to make the barriers as low as possible, so that people will still do it. Lowering the time it takes to learn about the issues (they send it directly to you so you don't have to go look for it) as well as the time it takes to actually vote (they let you do it by mail).