Rock the Vote Part 2 - by wongoz

Many apologies for the late post... i've been a little busy of late and i didn't want to shortchange my reply. As it is, it may seem shortchanged anyways, since i didn't want to delay it any longer, what with the 2004 NBA draft coming up on Thursday.

alright, as Apollo mentioned, we're on the same side of the coin, when it comes to voting - far be it from me to disagree with him on this one. But while i rant and rave about it on one side, my track record leaves something to be desired (i was once tossed from a job as chief returning officer - admittedly, i knew next to nothing about the position going in, so i had it coming), so let me play the devil's advocate and offer up some reasons why Joe Canadian (or Johann Deutsch) would NOT vote.

I'll start off with a bunch of reasons why people won't vote, before I try to rebut a couple of Apollo's talking points.

1. People just don't care - honestly, some people don't. I can probably count the number of people i know who actually care about politics on my two hands.

The people who care about the election are usually the same people who are already on one side of the political spectrum or other. The secret, latent force in political issues is the number of eligible, undecided swing voters who normally could care less about an election. All they want is that their leaders don't make asses of themselves (which is still hard to come by).

Disclaimer: frankly, i'm guilty of this. I've been living in Germany for the last 3 years, and i still don't read any German newspapers or newsmagazines, and I don't watch or listen to any German news programs, so I know less than nothing about German politics and the issues that concern Johann Deutsch. I'm just not interested. In my defense, I'm not eligible to vote here anyways.

2. People are uninformed - Admittedly, this seems like a real cop-out answer, and I usually call people on it when they use it.

So why am I admitting this? Because I again am guilty of it, though not in your typical I-don't-know-the-issues way. I'm not sure what's worse: that excuse, or mine. I'll let you decide.

Basically, I'm not voting in this month's federal election because I was uninformed - uninformed about electoral rules. I didn't think I was eligible to vote, so I didn't bother looking into it. Well, lo and behold, it turns out that I AM eligible, or rather, I was eligible, until 6pm today.

Actually, I've been eligible for any federal elections (haven't yet looked up provincial or municipal rules) since i've moved here because the rules state that any Canadian citizen living outside of Canada for less than 5 consecutive years since their last visit is eligible to vote. Oops. My bad.

3. People don't think their vote matter - Though we can see the fallacy of this point in the 2000 US presidential election, some people still think that their one vote doesn't make a difference anyways.

Alright, onto rebuttal time:

1. Apollo says voting is free. Well, so is running in the park, but people don't do that either. If they don't have an incentive (real or perceived) to do so, then they won't. Should the electorate be bribed into voting, or somehow coerced? No, I think that some education into the importance of the issues is enough. Implementation of that education is another thing though.

2. Apollo says voting is convenient. So is putting your garbage into a trash bin, but that doesn't stop people from doing something which is even more convenient - littering. And so, for some people, it's just more convenient not to vote.

3. Apollo says we should care about the services the government provides. The problem behind this is the transparency of services - people just don't know which government provides what service. The feds are talking big about health care, but it's administered provincially. Schools are a municipal issue, but colleges and universities are (mostly) provincial. If people are like I am here, I just pay my bills, pay my taxes, and expect everything to work. My garbage is picked up, the streets are relatively clean, the public transit is punctual, I can see a doctor when i need to, etc. Who cares who delivers it, as long as it is.

4. Apollo says democracy sets us apart. Like that matters to Joe Canadian?

5. Apollo says politicians are scary. That's my argument there. If all politicians are scary, then what's the point? This is more of a motivational point if you're trying to convince someone to enter politics, but it's not really a good selling point for voting. If politicians, by nature, can't be trusted, then why bother?

Alright, here's hoping that anyone who has read this far hasn't been turned off by my post. That's not my intention, nor is it meant to provide someone a defense for their own apathy (even though I might have provided one anyways). Go out, and rock the vote June 28.