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10/22/2009: "Voting Grumpy"
In a week, our city will have held their triennial elections. In preparation, the city has mailed out pamphlets saying that "YOUR VOTE COUNTS". Unfortunately, I don't see any way to make my vote count the way I want it to.
I don't trust any of the candidates, either for my region or for mayor, to make even a majority of decisions that I agree with. The incumbents have proven otherwise, and the platforms of the challengers are worse. So what's a voter to do?
If there ever was, there no longer appears to be any way of indicating a vote of "no confidence" in the candidates. If there was, I would use this without question.
I can boycott the election, stay home, and have my vote counted with the apathetic.
I can vote for nobody, spoil my ballot, and have my vote counted with the incompetent.
Or, I can hold my nose, and tick the box next to the candidate that I think is going to make things worse the slowest. That's hardly the most appealing choice.
There really seems to be no wholly positive answer to what to do with elections.