Does your vote matter?

Luanne Traud:

Does your vote matter?

Does one drop of rain matter?

Can one leaf nourish a tree?

Can one teacher eradicate ignorance?

Can one bee pollinate all flowers? 

Can one stone support an arch?

Can one ...

 

 

 

Does our vote matter?...not so much. One can possibly persuade others to vote the same ticket, and your vote multiplies. Considering what went in to our having the "right" to vote, such as the bloodshed, and all the trials and tribulations overcome to keep it that way, we have no choice but to honor those before us, and vote. So it matters whether you vote or not, more so than being the case where any particular single vote matters. Gip

My vote has probably mattered more in the last four years than it ever has or ever will again. We've proven that if people will get out & participate, we can get better politicians. We have now most of the ones I wanted, & after this current state election, I'll be looking to re-elect, & beyond that, the younger generation.

Good candidates emerge if they think they can win, & they can win if the voters support them. So, yes, my vote matters, & so does yours!

 

“Can one vote matter?”

 

Well, it’s all subjective or would the better word be “relative”

 

Individually, many people believe their vote does not matter of make a difference.  What they most likely do not give pause to consider is that there are thousands of others who feel the same way. 

 

Say we are talking about local elections for Roanoke City.   If several hundred people fail to go out and vote because they think their vote will not matter, then when the vote tallies come in and a candidate wins or loses by several hundred votes its evidently clear that “One” votes among hundreds does indeed affect the outcome of elections.

 

I must stray a tad bit off subject to say I can certainly understand why many feel their vote does not count.  I am so disenchanted with the Governor’s race I might actually not vote for either one of the vicious attack mongers over their ads.  I think the public is sick and tired of the back and forth attacking.  There needs to be a law that an attack ad must be 100% factual, no if, and’s or but’s.  We all know they are far from being factual and have such a spin the public is tuning out on the candidates and taking an attitude, “I don’t give a D___ which one of them gets in!

 

Of course the final point we all know and must say on this question is the proverbial, “If you don’t vote, then you have no right to complain”

 

 

Edward Lyons:

We've proven that if people will get out & participate, we can get better politicians. We have now most of the ones I wanted,

 

 

Edward,

Perhaps we have the ones you wanted, but I would definitely question or disagree with your statement that we have better ones.  That definitely depends on personal opinions.  I even question if there are any many good ones.  If so, they sure seem to be hiding.

 Ed,

You didn't by chance attend Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va. did you?

 

 

Unless there's a cynical subtext here, I don't understand the question. Since every vote is counted¹, every vote counts.

 

 

¹ Broward County, FL in 2000 notwithstanding.

 

Gibson Brown:

So it matters whether you vote or not, more so than being the case where any particular single vote matters.

I have no idea what you mean.  Maybe you could rearticulate this construction: more so than being the case where.

E. Duane Howard:

I simply don't see how you can compare a "Vote" to a "Drop of rain" Are you not comparing apples to watermelons?

You’re right, E. Duane.  That was my alter ego, “Bad Clonnie,” trying to stir up trouble. I have little control over him, and am not responsible for his forays into obtuseness. He has indicated that he will accept an “apples to cantaloupes” comparison, but that is as low as he can go.

While one drop of rain might not be worth much, we hardly ever experience one-drop-rainstorms, so my analogy was – shall we say less than perfect?   Votes are important, but only in the sense that pennies are important, unless we’re looking at it in the abstract, that is to say, voting as a right, as a privilege, as a marker of our stake in self-determination.  In that sense the individual vote takes on greater importance. 

 

 

 Have a comment....email me at Starcityflyer@aol.com

Seeing how roughly half of those who can vote don't, the folks who do vote speak for them too. If you want some one else speaking for you, then don't vote. If you want to be heard, vote. I said that. Gip

Marvin Foster:

Perhaps we have the ones you wanted, but I would definitely question or disagree with your statement that we have better ones.  That definitely depends on personal opinions.  I even question if there are any many good ones.  If so, they sure seem to be hiding.

I think you're right, Marvin.  (If we agree, you must be right!)  My vote, at least in state and national elections, always seems to be choosing between the lesser of two evils.  I don't think you can be a state or national candidate for either party without selling at least a portion of your soul to the devil. 

That said, I'm beginning to rethink my vote in the Presidential election.  Sometimes I think about what kind of shape we'd be in had John McCain been elected.  I imagine we would have taken the same steps, with the only difference probably being scope and size.  Imagine what the media would be doing if we had an unemployment rate of almost 10% and a Republican in the White House!  Do you think they'd be trying to get us to believe that happy days are just around the corner?

No, I should have voted for President Obama and thereby inoculated myself forever against any charge of racism.  My little vote would have been worth much more had I had the foresight to use it correctly.  It wouldn't have changed the election, but it would have given me some "street cred" and put me in the majority -- a position I rarely occupy anymore.  I guess what I'm saying is that, unlike most every other voter who pulled the lever, I should have used my vote selfishly.

 

Joe C..."I have no idea what you mean."

Joe, voting because it is the right thing to do...a good thing and important. Your vote ever deciding an election?...I doubt it, so maybe not that important. So sir, in closing, it is important to vote, but one vote is not that important. See? Gip