Voters In Many States Must Register By October 6

Will F. Johnston writes "Voters in AK, AR, AZ, CO, DC, FL, GA, HI, IN, KY, LA, MI, MS, OH, PA, TN, TX, and VA must register to vote by tomorrow, October 6, in order to vote in November. Other deadlines coming up soon: IL and NM are October 7. MT is Oct. 6, but you can do same-day registration at the elections office. UT is also Oct. 6, but you can register in person until the 20th."

Comments

Don't vote

[StealthyRoid]

Why not?

* It's an endorsement of democracy and small-r republican government, systems which have clearly failed in that they promote majoritarian tyranny and lowest-common-denominator rule.

* Your vote doesn't matter, no matter how much Puffy says it does. No single vote does. Sure, in the aggregate, they count, but the actual implication to one person not voting is non-existent.

* Even if enough people don't vote, enough to alter the outcome of an election, that's a good thing. People pay a lot of attention to turnout numbers. If there's a significant drop in the number of voters over previous elections, that structural criticism is worth more than your vote would likely be.

* When you vote, you're accepting the idea that everyone's vote is, and should be, equal, when clearly it's not. Think about it this way: 1/2 the people in this country are, definitionally, of below average intelligence, and even the average isn't that great. We wouldn't let those people make decisions about science or technology, because they simply don't have the necessary knowledge base to do so. Why let them on political matters? Are they less effected by science and tech matters than they are politics? Few enough people have put enough effort into forming a coherent personal political philosophy, fewer still have gone beyond that to keep abreast of what's going on in the world around them. That's not necessarily a criticism, not everyone has time for keeping up on whatever dumbass thing Biden or Obama say on any given day, they have lives to lead and kids to raise and bills to pay and shit. Some people's votes are worth more than others. They just are. We recognize that not everyone's opinions are equal in every other facet of our existence. That we don't in politics is to the detriment of us all.

* If you don't vote, I will give you $20 (offer is void where prohibited).

Re:Don't vote

[StealthyRoid]

Right, that's why it's a conditional. My assertion is that one vote doesn't matter. However, even if I'm wrong about that, and one vote DOES matter, it'd be better if someone didn't cast that vote than if they did, so my core argument that people shouldn't vote isn't damaged by a negation of the 2nd or 3rd bullet point independently of the other. To defeat my claim, you'd have to prove (or, since this is stupid /. comment threat politics arguing, assert) that both points are false. It's just a way of covering my bases.

Re: making my vote mean more, I live in Texas. My vote is less valuable than that of people who live in California.

DON'T VOTE

[mqduck]

It only encourages them.

Blatantly partisan story!

[EWAdams]

It was clearly written by a Democrat. A good Republican should be doing his or her best to discourage or even prevent new voters from registering. That trick of using recent mortgage foreclosures to challenge voter registrations on the grounds that the voter no longer has a clear home address... sheer genius, my hat is off to whatever GOP'er thought up something that low.