[Deleted]
Should people who don't vote complain about the results of an election?
Dec 7, 2015 5:41 PM
Comments · 3
5

Yes, and it makes sense especially in the United States for presidential elections.  I'll give you an example and sort of break down how our system works.

 

We don't go by the popular vote to pick the president.  Popular vode would mean if you get 200,000 votes and the other guy gets 195,000 votes, you win.

 

We have a system where it is state-by-state.  Each state is worth a certain number of 'electoral votes'.  It is a winner-take-all system.  So the person who wins New York, for example, wins the entire state and the other candidate gets zero 'electoral votes' or 'points' from that state.

 

In my state of California, the winner is always from the democratic party.  So there could be 5 million people who voted for a candidate but their votes do not count at all since it is winner-take-all.

 

In actuality, only about 8 states of the 50 states in the US decide who the president will be.  It's in these states where all the campaigning and political ads take place.  Almost no campaigning is done in the states where it is a foregone conclusion who will win the state.  Examples of these states would be Texas, California, New York, etc.  There is no point in the opposition trying to win in those states.  Even though millions of people vote in them.

 

So it is worthless to vote in some instances and people have every right to complain.  I wish we would go to a popular vote system, but that won't happen.

December 7, 2015
3

Haha I got a downvote for explaining our election system.  Classic.

December 7, 2015
2

I don't see a point in complaining about the outcome of an election for anyone, voter or not, unless the procedure wasn't fair.

 

What's there to complain about, your party didn't win? That's democracy. Democracy-but-only-if-my-party-wins is a dictatorship.

December 7, 2015