Not Bothering with a Write-In Vote

Ron Paul — who I still believe would make an incredible American president — has stated that he does not want to be voters’ “write-in” candidate, feeling that write-ins are a waste of time.

Perhaps — nay, probably — Dr. Paul is correct; do write-in votes matter? If they are counted, then the written in names are seen by local precinct workers, but who else sees them? I confess I don’t know much about this process, but it does seem as though sorting through all the votes for family members, fictional characters, and other probable write-ins would make the whole thing fairly worthless.

My dad ((“Senior” in various comments on this site — yes, I know, he really needs his own site for me to link to in referencing him.)) has his own idea about how to show dissatisfaction in the choices of candidates given to us.

If you don’t really like Obama or McCain, for whom do you vote? How can you let the parties know that the choices they are giving you, well, suck?

Far too many people settle for the lesser of two evils. Honestly, I don’t we should have to be settling when we express our political views through our vote.

Not voting doesn’t really tell the parties anything either. You may very well be staying at home because you dislike the candidates, but they won’t know that. Too many people stay at home because of apathy, and you’ll just blend into that crowd if you just don’t vote.

So vote. Show up. Sign in. Get in the voting booth. And then what?

Vote for the dog catcher.

Seriously. Dissatisfied with the choices for president or governor or any of the higher offices? Find the lowest office and vote only for that one.

Your vote will be counted. You would have showed up. Organize this with others in your community and get friends from elsewhere involved as well, and parties may start to take notice, at least on a local level. And as Obama is fond of pointing out, if you can affect the local populace, you can affect a state and a nation.

Voting for the lowest office on the ballot — you care enough to show up and to vote, but you show that you are dissatisfied with the big names.

The parties certainly want your votes. If it starts becoming apparent that caring people are not giving them their votes because the wrong people are being nominated… well, things may start to change for the better.

But then again, it’s going to take a lot of people to make something like this effective…

…just like everything that’s worthwhile, I suppose.

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