Why you need to vote
When I went to my polling place this morning, the polls had already been open for two hours.
In those two hours, I was the fourth person to vote in my district. My district is the largest one at my polling place. It has two thick books of voter rolls. And in those two books, I was only the fourth person to sign my name in two hours.
At that same polling place last November, I stood in line for an hour and a half to vote for President. Yet the President has no jurisdiction over traffic safety, city term limits, congestion pricing, how often my trash is picked up, how much I pay in sales tax, whether I have rights if my landlord is negligent, or city corruption. These issues impact my neighbors a lot more than what the President can do. What makes this election so much less important?
Complacency is why we keep the status quo. It’s why we have a government that works for special interests and not for us. It’s why we have politicians who vote against the interests of their district, yet continue to be re-elected.
In most races in New York City, the primaries are more important than the general election. In some races today, the winner of the primary is already the winner of the general election. Yet four people voted in two hours.
Please, do the research and vote. Even if you don’t think you care, you should.
Oh, phooey. If this sort of civic-minded hoohaw actually motivated anyone to vote, we would have way higher turnout rates, because everyone is subject to it all the time. (And it’s not true: we have the status quo because we know the degree to which the status quo works, whereas we don’t know the degree to which the alternative will.) Let’s be a little more realistic about voting in primaries in NYC, which is indeed important if you care about anything the city does or requires you to do. Make it more speicific than “special interests”: the NYC city council has balkanized into a collection of reps speaking for various demographic interest groups, and while that is the dream of certain political theorists, it does leave out a sizable portion of the population. Representatives are only going to represent the people that actually turn out to vote, which is fair enough, so if you think your interests aren’t being represented (and they may already be, especially with Bloomberg as mayor), it’s probably because people like you aren’t turning out and your rep knows it. Vote today if you want, but more importantly, try and make other people aware of the situation for next time.
Here’s another reason: the Democrats in the State Senate are apparently a bunch of fucking imbiciles, but I sure don’t want to vote for a Republican, so show up and vote for any Democrat except for the incumbant. They might not actually lose, but it would be really, really nice to put the fear of God in ‘em for having fucked up so mightily. Even if the public does mainly blame the Republicans.
3 months ago
