SURVEYS-PERFECT THEY AINT
The local paper, The Herald-Dispatch (aka The Herald-Disgrace), ran a survey last week regarding the upcoming elections. The survey asked whether, six weeks from the election, the respondents intended to vote. The results were absolutely astounding.
About twenty percent of those responding said they were NOT going to vote. Aint that a kick? TWENTY percent of the populace couldn't care less what happens in this city, state or country. And if I were God, I'd go around to each of their homes and burn their voters registration cards right in front of them, haul them off to the public square and publicly flog them.
Lets see, the population of the country is now about 350 million. Pull out those who are too young to vote and that leaves about 250 million potential voters. Should the results be correct, then only 200 million would vote. But only about 166 million voted in the last general election, so it appears that only about 66 percent actually do vote, and that means that 14 percent are unaccounted for in the survey. And that means that the 20 percent is actually 34 percent. Over one third of eligible voters refuse to vote.
Wonder if that 34 percent are the ones who complain the most bitterly when they don't like the way the country is going? Quoting Laugh-In, "You bet your bippy!."
Watching the percent of eligible voters who actually cast a ballot over the past twenty or so years, I've come to the conclusion that probably fifty percent of those who do not vote don't give a rats rear end about anything. And I truly do mean anything. But the other fifty percent dearly love to carp about everything the society or government does. And I truly do mean everything.
Those of us who do bother to vote are voting for 1-1/3 eligible voters, so I myself look very closely at the candidates and issues. It's a hell of a responsibility those non-voters put upon all us who do vote.
And you cannot convince these people that it is in their best interest to vote. Apathy reigns supreme for them. Until the world does something they don't like or something that affects their pocketbook occurs. Then that vocal fifty percent of 34 percent goes bananas. And their rapid fire carping gets the sttention of the politicians and the politicians make rapid fire decisions that are wrong, inept and downright stupid. And then we, the actual voters, are forced to make decisions that sometimes are good, sometimes bad, and at other times, downright disastrous.
Polls, inherently, are to be looked upon with suspicion, as only those with a vested interest will respond. Now what in the hell does that mean, you ask. It simply means that everyone who responded to that survey has a computer, since it was an online poll. And who has computers? The young, the more affluent, some retirees, and others who like to look at what other people are doing and saying. But, more to the point, those without access to a computer could not respond.
And that means the vote was skewed. And people are more apt to respond yes than no in any poll, in any event. So it really tells me that, although I cannot put a number to it, many more than twenty percent ARE NOT GOING TO VOTE THIS YEAR!! Based on previous mid-term elections, we'll be lucky to turn out fifty percent of the eligible voters.
A majority of fifty percent of course, works out to be about 25.1 percent. Of eligible voters, not of the population, only of the eligible voters--who are those who bothered to register (which works out to less than eighty percent of potentially eligible voters on the basis of age.) So now lets work some numbers.
If we have a turnout of fifty percent of eligible voters, we have a turnout of 40 percent of potentially eligible voters and a winning percentage of votes turns out to be 20.1 percent of potentially eligible voters. If we had a presidential election based on these numbers, a vote of 50,250,000 votes would elect a president. Out of a total population of 350 million. What a travesty. That means that 14.3 percent of the population would elect a president, and by extension, senator, congressman.
I'm now to the point of saying that voting should no longer be a priviledge (notice I didn't say right), but a requirement. Say anyone over the age of twenty-one is required to vote, penalty for not voting being a matter of law and not subject to reduction by judicial authority. I know, eighteen year old are eligible to vote. They don't as a rule, so put it back to twenty-one where it should be. After all, they can't drink legally until twenty-one, so why give them the vote? And they are certainly too young to get married at eighteen. And they are just barely able to drive safely at eighteen. But I digress...
I do not expect anyone to agree with me regarding these issues, but being right is more important to me than having people agree with me. So there.
About twenty percent of those responding said they were NOT going to vote. Aint that a kick? TWENTY percent of the populace couldn't care less what happens in this city, state or country. And if I were God, I'd go around to each of their homes and burn their voters registration cards right in front of them, haul them off to the public square and publicly flog them.
Lets see, the population of the country is now about 350 million. Pull out those who are too young to vote and that leaves about 250 million potential voters. Should the results be correct, then only 200 million would vote. But only about 166 million voted in the last general election, so it appears that only about 66 percent actually do vote, and that means that 14 percent are unaccounted for in the survey. And that means that the 20 percent is actually 34 percent. Over one third of eligible voters refuse to vote.
Wonder if that 34 percent are the ones who complain the most bitterly when they don't like the way the country is going? Quoting Laugh-In, "You bet your bippy!."
Watching the percent of eligible voters who actually cast a ballot over the past twenty or so years, I've come to the conclusion that probably fifty percent of those who do not vote don't give a rats rear end about anything. And I truly do mean anything. But the other fifty percent dearly love to carp about everything the society or government does. And I truly do mean everything.
Those of us who do bother to vote are voting for 1-1/3 eligible voters, so I myself look very closely at the candidates and issues. It's a hell of a responsibility those non-voters put upon all us who do vote.
And you cannot convince these people that it is in their best interest to vote. Apathy reigns supreme for them. Until the world does something they don't like or something that affects their pocketbook occurs. Then that vocal fifty percent of 34 percent goes bananas. And their rapid fire carping gets the sttention of the politicians and the politicians make rapid fire decisions that are wrong, inept and downright stupid. And then we, the actual voters, are forced to make decisions that sometimes are good, sometimes bad, and at other times, downright disastrous.
Polls, inherently, are to be looked upon with suspicion, as only those with a vested interest will respond. Now what in the hell does that mean, you ask. It simply means that everyone who responded to that survey has a computer, since it was an online poll. And who has computers? The young, the more affluent, some retirees, and others who like to look at what other people are doing and saying. But, more to the point, those without access to a computer could not respond.
And that means the vote was skewed. And people are more apt to respond yes than no in any poll, in any event. So it really tells me that, although I cannot put a number to it, many more than twenty percent ARE NOT GOING TO VOTE THIS YEAR!! Based on previous mid-term elections, we'll be lucky to turn out fifty percent of the eligible voters.
A majority of fifty percent of course, works out to be about 25.1 percent. Of eligible voters, not of the population, only of the eligible voters--who are those who bothered to register (which works out to less than eighty percent of potentially eligible voters on the basis of age.) So now lets work some numbers.
If we have a turnout of fifty percent of eligible voters, we have a turnout of 40 percent of potentially eligible voters and a winning percentage of votes turns out to be 20.1 percent of potentially eligible voters. If we had a presidential election based on these numbers, a vote of 50,250,000 votes would elect a president. Out of a total population of 350 million. What a travesty. That means that 14.3 percent of the population would elect a president, and by extension, senator, congressman.
I'm now to the point of saying that voting should no longer be a priviledge (notice I didn't say right), but a requirement. Say anyone over the age of twenty-one is required to vote, penalty for not voting being a matter of law and not subject to reduction by judicial authority. I know, eighteen year old are eligible to vote. They don't as a rule, so put it back to twenty-one where it should be. After all, they can't drink legally until twenty-one, so why give them the vote? And they are certainly too young to get married at eighteen. And they are just barely able to drive safely at eighteen. But I digress...
I do not expect anyone to agree with me regarding these issues, but being right is more important to me than having people agree with me. So there.
posted by tanstaafl | 2:41 PM
1 Comments:
I gave up on the statistics about halfway thru---but the point was made. I had an employee who liked to gripe about everything the govt did--even more so when Bush 43 got elected. So I let him gripe--feeling that since I was his supervisor I needed to be careful what I said, not to be pushy---then one day after a particularly vehement bout of b^(&*(& and moaning from him, I said, "So did you vote for person you're griping about or his opponent?" Turns out he doesn't vote. Hasn't in years. So now after several years of hearing the same rhetoric from him, I finally said, "Do me a favor--put your money where your mouth is and VOTE instead of always complaining how stupid the rest of us are when we do."
I married one guy who said he believed the way I did, but voted the opposite every time. I got rid of him. Yeah you know who he is and why. The man I'm married to now hadn't voted since 1984, when he cast a vote for Reagan 2 months after he turned 18. The next election he voted in was 2004---20 years later, because he finally realized that he wasn't helping anything by not voting. And having a wife who votes in practically every election helps too. Of course I had parents who taught that it was my duty and responsibility to vote. Thanks, Dad and Mom.
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