I know people have various thoughts about voting, but for me an important perspective is that it's about harm reduction...
Often, this means recognizing but there is both offense and defense involved in being engaged. The more you practice both, the more prepared you are to know what is needed, and act on it.
If you're in #NewMexico, the polls are open til 7p and you can even register and vote on the spot if you're new or it's been a while
We're also blessed in that our elections are both secure and accessible, including being ranked number one in the nation recently by MIT Election Data and Science Lab, which is no small feat
"The proposal, akin to the federal Electoral College, would give voters in Loving County, population 64, more power than those in Harris County, where 4.7 million people live. King County, with 265 people, would wield a vote equivalent to Bexar, with 2 million.
Does this sound like a political party that has won every statewide election for 26 years? Or a party that has confidence in its electoral future?"
India is in the middle of its sprawling 6-week election season, where nearly a billion eligible voters will take part in the world’s largest democracy. Some of them will give their vote for a price. While bribing people to vote for candidates is illegal, India’s election commission says it has seized more than a billion dollars in cash, food, jewelry and other “freebie” inducements this year. NPR has more.
1/ Okay, while the Trump verdict has been very riveting, I'd like to talk about failure states in democracies for a bit.
Any stable democracy needs peaceful transfers of power. If a ruling government loses in an election and thus loses power, they are free to moan about it - but in the end, they should leave office without violence because (unless they screwed up bigly) they realize that they will likely return to power one day. They are invested in the system, and do not want to overthrow the basic democratic order of their country - because it works for them.
Thus, a country needs multiple parties with an investment in democracy, who are willing to form a government - but who are also willing to leave peacefully. If this is not the case, then the democracy in question is in a failure state.
An good (or rather, very very bad) example of a "proportional representation" democracy in a failure state was the late Weimar Republic. Starting in 1932, the NSDAP (Nazis) and the KDP (Communists) received a majority of the vote and thus representatives. Both wanted to overthrow the Republic and its democracy in its own way, and thus it became impossible to form a democratic government - let alone switch between different ones. But the Weimar Republic had problems in this regard even earlier, since there were numerous miniscule parties with only a very small number of candidates. They only cared about a small number of issues, had no motivation to compromise, and thus were not willing to join a working government.
3/ Meanwhile, First Past the Post voting systems - as seen in the #USA and the #UK - massively favor a two-party system. That means that if one of the parties is no longer committed to the democratic order of the nation, its democracy automatically enters a failure state - as there can no longer be a peaceful transfer of power. If there's one party which is willing to overthrow the democratic order of the country when they get into power - as the Nazis did during the Weimar Republic - then they must not attain power, or else it's game over for democracy.
But then the other party - which is (hopefully) still committed to democracy - must not lose power, because then it's game over for democracy. But when one party has to be constantly in power in order to save democracy, then a peaceful transfer of power is no longer possible! Thus, this democracy has entered a failure state. It is inevitable that frustration with a particular government will grow over time, yet this frustration cannot find release because the government must not be voted out of office if democracy is to survive.
Thus, the only way for democracy to survive if the not-democratic party either reforms itself or is displaced by a new party - and the latter is extremely difficult to pull off under a FPtP voting system, since such voting systems massively discourage first parties.
4/ We are seeing what this means in the #USA (I don't follow #UK politics as closely, but my impression is that it's not quite that bad yet). The #Republicans have fully committed to #fascism . The #Democrats are the only viable non-fascist voting option, and thus must not lose power if whatever democracy the USA has left is to survive. In a healthy democracy, voters could voice their dissatisfaction with the ruling party by voting for another party - but that's no longer possible in the USA, because if they do that in sufficiently large numbers, the USA will no longer have a democracy.
Thus, the only hopes the USA have of surviving this is for the Democrats to hold out until either (a) the Republicans reform themselves and purge their fascists (which seems exceedingly unlikely), or (b) collapse and are replaced by a party that is committed to democracy and the peaceful transform of power. Which also seems exceedingly unlikely.
The whole situation in the USA is horrible, and I feel for all Americans who suffer under it - although if the USA becomes a fully fascist nation, no person on Earth will ultimately be safe. But I feel that this whole mess is also a searing condemnation of the "First Past the Post" voting system, since it makes reaching such a failure state fairly easy.
The battle between Brandon Herrera and Tony Gonzales was a masterclass in mutual mudslinging, but also reveals the limits of the influencer-turned-politician model, at least in this strangely cut swath of the Lone Star State.
So the slow down now is the lady folding the ballots & stamping them. Long wait for her to slowly fold each one. Why is no one helping her? Multiple people standing around! #southafrica#voting#capetown
Was haltet ihr von der Idee, allen Personen mit minderjährigen Kindern und generell allen unter 30 bei #Wahlen eine zusätzliche #Zukunftsstimme zu geben?
Altersgewichtetes Wählen tönt im ersten Moment spannend, sobald man es genauer analysiert, wird es schwierig:
Ich mache es mir einfach und zitiere aus der Zusammenfassung eines Papers [1]:
"First, even if the arguments are sound, they cannot vindicate any blanket age-based disenfranchisement, but only schemes whereby older citizens are granted somewhat less weight in elections."
It is almost impossible to answer this and not be branded anti-american, but look around the world and see that similar caricatures of politicians have been rising either in power or really close to it. Particularly Europe seems to be drifting closer and closer to this and worse.
Because voters are linked through Google and Apple to a conditioning machine that controls their choices.
Why do women still face criticism and trolling over the way they dress, walk and look. People give their unwanted opinion upon their life decisions. When will they let women live on their own terms without being constantly judged?
The famous Indian actress, Deepika Padukone recently became the target of intense online trolling after revealing her baby bump when she came to cast her vote in Mumbai.
Sometimes people take politics too personally, eventually resorting to violence but the question is whether violence is justified during the time of elections?
Nearly half of voters across a group of swing-states said they expect violence around the upcoming presidential election, according to a new poll.
Delhi is facing severe heatwave during the voting day, which is impacting the health of the people. It is becoming a concerning issues now!
Our warnings show that temperatures are likely to be high in heat wave category but voting is important and as far as we understand, measures are being taken to prevent emergencies,” said a weather official.
Stopping for some absorption of nature vibes and caffeine before taking my mail-in ballot to the drive-up box at the post office. This disabled person and their cranky AF body appreciate the heck out of Oregon vote-by-mail, let me tell ya.
Tomorrow is election day for Oregonians. Ballots must be taken to a drop box or postmarked by 8 PM Tuesday, May 21.
All registered voters should have received voters' pamphlets and ballots automatically (I love our vote by mail system ❤️) but here's your reminder in case you stashed them somewhere and forgot.
Local elections can have a big impact!
I spent the morning doing my research and voting at home 😁