"We should be ashamed that more people don’t vote." An editorial from my local paper:

[elocs]

http://lacrossetribune.com/news/opinion/editorial/columnists/article_cda7b486-4c35-11e0-a590-001cc4c03286.html

The word “democracy” has been thrown around Capitol Square and across our state and nation in recent days.

But democracy clearly doesn’t mean a thing to more than half the people in Wisconsin.

How can he say that? Because only 49.7% of eligible voters here in Wisconsin bothered to vote last November. Now Walker received 90% of the number of votes that McCain received in 2008 so apparently Republicans managed to make it to the polls. The trouble is that Tom Barrett, Walker's Democratic opponent, received 600,000 fewer of the number of votes cast for Obama, 60%, and Walker won by less than 125,000 votes.

We should be ashamed — ashamed that Wisconsin’s political exercise is being played out across the nation, and more than half of us didn’t even bother to exercise the right to vote.

We’ve said it before: We get the government we deserve. That’s not necessarily a comment about current events. It’s a criticism of how the people of this state and nation make the conscious decision not to vote in overwhelming numbers, election after election, year after year.

Governments are formed, laws and policies are made as a result of those who choose to participate in the process. Politics abhors a vacuum and if one side chooses to abdicate their right to participate in the process, then likely the other side will prevail. That's what happened here in Wisconsin. Every election is important and any election may have dire consequences as we see here.

I've been in Madison a couple of days and I've heard the chant: "Tell me what democracy looks like" answered by "this is what democracy looks like". Well, what democracy also looks like is showing up at the polls and casting a vote. Voting may not be as inspiring as huge protests in Madison, but it is also what democracy looks like.

People in third world countries or those who get the vote for the first time will walk many long miles and even risk their lives to cast their first vote. Here people get in a snit and won't vote or buy into the lie that there is no difference between the two parties.

I live in Wisconsin and I will suffer because Walker and his Republican cohorts were elected and I can tell you there is a big difference between the two parties. Not voting also has consequences and what happened here in Wisconsin is a result of that. We have an election here next month to choose a state supreme court justice and I hope here Democrats will choose to turn out and vote. As well, I hope that in each and every recall election here that Democrats will finish what they started and defeat the Republicans and maintain this fervor, fire, and passion in recalling and defeating Walker next year.

[OKNancy]

1. Why did the Democrats stay home?

Did the constant stream of criticism of Democrats have a role?

[Fumesucker]

3. Probably had more to do with the behavior of Democratic politicians..

That's my hypothesis anyway.

[MineralMan]

11. Not really. Every person decided for himself or herself

whether to vote and why. The behavior of a politician should not affect people's voting. In many cases, they're not even voting for or against that particular politician. Their votes count for all sorts of people running for office. If a person stays away from the polls in an off-year election because they don't like the current President, they may well cause other candidates they do like to lose. In Wisconsin, they lost a US Senator. In Minnesota, we lost both houses of the state legislature.

Why people work against themselves by staying away from the polls to punish someone who is not even running is beyond me.

[elocs]

12. I heard it once explained what is the difference between MN and WI: 8000 votes.

Or the number of votes that gave MN a Democratic governor who could put a check on the Republican legislature. It would be nice to have a Democratic governor here in WI because this would not have happened.

[MineralMan]

13. Very good point. In Minnesota, we could have a teabagger

as Governor, too. Fortunately, a very strong GOTV push in many urban precincts by the DFL party here gave us the votes to get Governor Dayton elected. In the more rural parts of Minnesota, that didn't happen, so we lost control of both houses of our legislature. In my own precinct, where I walked every street and talked to hundreds of people, we turned out 60% of the registered voters, and Democrats won overwhelmingly in our district, with almost exactly 60% of the vote across the board.

That's the activism that works to get Democrats elected, including progressive Democrats, like the congresswoman who serves our district, Betty McCollum. Anyone who denies that is just plain wrong. There's only one way we're going to regain control, and that's to turn out every Democrat in every precinct in this country. If we do that, we will win. If we fail, everyone loses.

2012 is coming. Will we do it, or will we sit it out? That's the question.

[Fumesucker]

25. "The behavior of a politician should not affect people's voting."

That's possibly the stupidest thing I've ever read on DU..

And that's saying a lot.

[Ikonoklast]

21. Ed Schultz, Hamsher, Uyger telling Democrats to stay home.

Funny dat.

"ALL THE SAME!!!" they ranted.

"WE'LL SHOW THEM!!!" they brayed.

And the gullible agreed with them.


Just who did they think that would hurt, or help?

I already know.

[Fumesucker]

24. Funny thing is..

I've never actually read or seen any of the three people you mention although I've read plenty of rants *about* those people here on DU.

[Ikonoklast]

27. DU is not the entire world.

In fact, it is a very small corner.

Get out more.

[Fumesucker]

28. Where would I go to meet these people?

Have you ever met them?

[LiberalAndProud]

14. I believe that the dismantling of Dean's 50 state strategy had a great deal to do with it.

The fact is that Kaine has no interest in GOTV. It has been evident from the beginning of his leadership (and I use that term loosely) that his emphasis is old school -- money, money, money. That leaves little place in the grand scheme of things for you and me, and little concern and no apparatus for getting voters to the polls.

It almost makes one believe that those in Democratic leadership positions *want* to lose.

[LiberalAndProud]

15. I think our new slogan should be Back to the Future.

Because we've been moving backward since our 2008 victories.

[Scuba]

16. Riight, we should never, ever, ever criticize a Democrat....

...:sarcasm:

[fittosurvive]

2. It might help if people actually knew what form of government we have.

Section 4 - Republican government

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.

[Bandit]

7. I take that to mean Democratic Republic

Do you understand it to be different than that? A Democratic Republic mean the people vote for who they want to represent them and they also vote for Referendums about local issues. When voting for a referendum how does that fit into your Republican idea?

[fittosurvive]

9. No, I mean a Constitutional Republic; where people elect representatives

my means of the democratic process. However, these representatives are limited by a constitution with respect to the legislation they can enact.

Under a democracy, there are no limits and as such, it devolves into a tyranny of the majority.

Simply put, democracy is mob rule dressed in a coat and tie.

[nebenaube]

17. That pretty much sums up what the Repuppetlicans did here.

Enjoy your stay...

[fittosurvive]

20. Actually, that pretty much sums up the manner in which both Democratic and Republican

legislatures are obligated to enact legislation.

Thank you for the kind wishes.

[liberal N proud]

4. There are so many efforts keeping people from voting

Voter registration should be done automatically when you turn 18. It should be taught in school that voting is an obligation and part of being a citizen in the United States.

Any efforts to prevent people from voting should be a crime. But with the right wing and their knowing that they wouldn't stand a chance if everyone voted continue to do everything they can to stop people from registering to vote and stopping registered voters from casting their ballot.

It is a crime against democracy and should be punishable by law.

[Tippy]

5. I wish people would realize, when you don't vote we all lose

It seems some really believe their vote will not be counted, then there are those who are just to dam lazy...I would like to see some ad's running showing what students will be doing when should be in school. I believe we will see many schools closed as more teachers quit....

[Maureen54]

6. sad

Many people in this country are so ignorant of how important it is to vote. There are many people at my office ( all with college degrees, many with Masters)that don't vote. One didn't realize we had a new Governor ( and we work for a government agency)!.

Then we have the ones that don't vote because "they are all the same".

Very frustrating!!

[shireen]

8. election day should be a national holiday

Go vote, then head to the mall for early Christmas shopping! :D

[alc]

10. people know & care more about Charlie Sheen than WI

We should be ashamed of that. And fix that before we encourage them to vote. Democracy needs informed voters not just more voters. Too many uninformed voters is what enables politicians to flat out lie during the campaigns, then do the opposite, then lie in the next campaign. Money is so important to elections because so many voters only know the candidates and issues from campaign commercials.

[Fly by night]

18. We should be ashamed that elections are decided on unverifiable voting equipment.

If WE had united behind the Rush Holt (D-NJ) Voter Confidence Act, we could be more confident that the "results" reported on election day have anything remotely to do with how voters voted.

Since we didn't, we can't.

Stop blaming the voters until we can count their votes as they were cast. Until then, this discussion (and the two dozen just like it posted here in the past few weeks -- hmmm, beginning to see a patttern here) is completely meaningless.

It's not who casts the votes that counts. It's who counts the votes.

Joseph Stalin said something of the sort.

Republican know just what he meant.

[elocs]

19. I'm talking about here in Wisconsin. Are you familiar with our voting equipment.

From 2006: http://almaer.com/blog/wisconsin-voting-machines

Among the 15 bills governor Jim Doyle signed into law on Wednesday will require the software of touch-screen voting machines used in elections to be open-source.

Municipalities that use electronic voting machines are responsible for providing to the public, on request, the code used.

Any voting machines to be used in the state already had to pass State Elections Board tests. Electronic voting machines, in particular, already were required to maintain their results tallies even if the power goes out, and to produce paper ballots that could be used in case of a recount. The new law also requires the paper ballots to be presented to voters for verification before being stored.

So in this case here in Wisconsin it is entire appropriate to blame those who chose not to participate in the process, a choice which allowed Walker to be elected. There was no massive voter fraud here in Wisconsin and the ballots were counted properly.

There is so substitute for getting out and voting and the constant crying about voter fraud and conspiracies wears thin when people choose to stay at home and allow the Republicans to take the field.

[fittosurvive]

22. Careful now, for you have surely challenged the sacred belief

that defeat is always the result of a fraudulent process.

[elocs]

23. That certainly is the belief of many here at DU, that there must alway be fraud

when a Democrat is defeated. And there always is some intricate conspiracy. That is not to say there is no fraud, but when you play that card too often you begin to lose credibility.

It reminds me of the football receiver who cannot believe he could drop a pass and is always looking or crying for a flag to be thrown penalizing his opponent. Sometimes you drop a pass because you drop it and sometimes Democrats lose because the electorate prefers the other candidate. Sometimes, like last November here in Wisconsin, too many Democrats chose simply not to vote and too many Republicans made the choice to vote.

[fittosurvive]

26. The enthusiasm and passion of the electorate are in a constant state of motion and as a result,

every election cycle is different than the previous one. I think you would agree that during the most previous cycle, Republicans were far more excited than Democrats. The next time around, Democrats will be very excited about ensuring that their voices heard.

Shortly after the next election, the base of the Republican Party, who also worship at the alter of sacred beliefs; will be unable to grasp the concept that they could actually be defeated in a free and fair election.

I agree that fraud exists at the margins; however, since neither side trusts the other, each of them monitors the process very closely in order to protect their interests. In view of that, it seems highly unlikely that widespread fraud would go undetected.

[Fly by night]

30. Horseshit (see below). Welcome to DU.

You've been here less than a month, but you're already happy to tell the rest of us whats zup. Maybe if you hide and watch a while (instead of posting 10+ times a day), you might learn something. Or not.

"It is impossible to convince a man of something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."

HL Mencken said something of the sort.

Republican posters on DU demonstrate every day what he meant.

If that shoe doesn't fit, then stop sniffing it.

[Fly by night]

29. The Holt bill bans DREs entirely, requires paper ballots/opscan AND ...

... requires that a mandatory random manual recount be conducted after every election to insure the accuracy of the count produced on the opscans. It appears to me that, even though Wisconsin's voting systems are an improvement over Tennessee's, they still would not meet the standards set by the Holt bill, standards that would be put in place because any electronic voting system can be hacked.

Here in Tennessee, we vote now entirely on unverifiable DREs, thanks to a corrupt State Election Coordinator and a legislature now in the control of Republicans (for the first time since Reconstruction) who were for verifiable elections before they took control and announced that one of their three legislative priorities was to repeal our own Voter Confidence Act. As a result, in a state with 8% more self-reported Democrats than Republicans, our elections are turning out like just the opposite.

Case in point: In the Memphis/Shelby County elections this summer, an entirely white Republican slate of county officials was (s)elected, despite Shelby county being one of the blackest and bluest counties in the South (or anywhere.) The smell blowing over my farm coming from the west after that election was not the smell of dead catfish on the banks of the Mississippi, but the smell of dead and decaying democracy in the bowels of our "vapor ballots" voting machines.

There are many possible explanations for why our electorate "seems" to be turning to the right of Attila the Hun. Until we can count and re-count the ballots, we will never know.

After eight years of working to improve election integrity in this country, I am now in favor of doing away with electronics entirely and going to hand-counted paper ballots that would be counted by teams of high school Honor Society members who are intelligent enough to count and who still have their honor intact.

Unlike too many adults, unlike our country.

[Shiver]

31. I said the same thing a week or two ago

and I was shouted down by someone, who said "you can't blame Progressives for not being motivated!" or something along those lines.

Well, you know what? If they didn't vote, then yes I fucking can! I don't care if you're motivated or not, sometimes you have to hold your nose and vote for the lesser of two evils, as horrible a thing as that is, to make sure the greater evil loses. I wish it were different, and I believe that the more Repugs we can keep out of office, the easier it will be to get real Democrats and Progressives in. But the first step is keeping the Republicans out.

And really... if you're in Wisconsin, and the fact that Barrett has permanent damage to his hand after being beaten with a tire iron for trying to stop an assault on a woman he didn't know wasn't enough to motivate you to vote for him, then I don't know what would.