A serious question: If you don't vote, do you deserve to have your positions

represented? Paid attention to? Should we try to get non-voting blocs to the polls at all?

Read me out, please: I'm not dissing anything but the system here. As it is, if you don't vote, you aren't represented. If you vote uninformed, or one issue, IMHO, you are vastly overrepresented, and we informed, but oiften conflicted, voters seem to be left out to dry. I suppose it's a question of issues vs. marketing at the core.

I've known people who refuse to vote but will call their representatives and city council members to complain and it drives me up a wall. Now there's the usual campaign talk of bringing reluctant "special interests*" to the polls; a group that will probably vote Democratic (really, it doesn't matter which one). I'm not sure this is a great idea, really. At least one person I know who doesn't vote, but calls her rep, happens to fall into this category, too.

*I loathe that Luntzian term, but it illustrates the problem I'm addressing.

Not voting can either be apathy and a position of nonparticipation or not voting can be a vote in itself, representing displeasure with all viable candidates on the roster.

I lean toward the second position as some of the non-votes are positions in themselves and deserve a voice, albeit an alternative to that making policy.

(Mainstreet Moms Oppose Bush) and while I consider it a rewarding effort on a personal level, I'm not sure such a thing serves the general interest.

On a practical level, I think there's no denying that GOTV will endure. But targeting a specific "market" may not be such a good idea for the rest of us.

I don't know, really. :shrug:

Pretty much the only right a citizen has over a resident alien is the right to vote, so if you don't exercise it, you're not really an American.

Just as you can vote and still be UN-represented.

I've been the latter since 2000, as have many here.

I don't believe not voting locks one out of the process. Some feel it should, but that isn't reality, as proved by your friend who doesn't vote but still harangues her rep. Her rep has no idea if she votes or not unless she tells him/her. So the potential vote still carries weight.

when I had no good reason for not voting then I have, in effect, voted for the winner and have less credibility if I choose to complain about them afterward.

Voting is both a right and a responsibility, imo, and there is always the danger of losing that right by NOT using it.

I have thought for a while now that a "displeasure vote" should be an option on the ballot. Then we could get a good measure of national dissatisfaction with the political system.

So even those people who don't vote have the right to petition their representative under the constitution. I wouldn't have it any other way. That doesn't mean their Representative. For instance, Duncan Hunter, my representative, doesn't listen to me. Of course, I've always voted for someone else, but I still have the right under the Constitution to petition my representative, upstanding Neanderthal Rethug Con-servative that he is.

I always vote. I vote for everything on the ticket in my district. When given more than one choice there is always one that is in some minor way will be a better match for my person interest. I believe withholding my vote is cutting off my nose to spite my face. If I don't like how a public official acts, I vote against him. Ultimately, loosing is the only thing that teaches an elected official or party anything.

My ex-wife never votes and sees it as only perpetuating a hopelessly corrupt system. While I agree with her, on many levels, I still vote. I'm growing more and more fond of that handy little "write-in" option though.

are where it all started for me. Certain families of standing and wealth, were consistently part of the political scenery, with real cause and effect..regarding things like the court system, zoning, permits, and access through these politicians to Congressional representatives. I took a civil service test when I got out of high school, and was told if I wanted the job I should register republican. Small town politics with real time consequences. I did not register to vote, I did get the job, but I only lasted one day. I learned some early lessons when my boyfriend's business was targeted by the ticketing of our customers for illegal parking, on a street that had no "No Parking" signs. It turned out there was an empty lot across the street, and the owner...who 'knew' people was trying to force us to rent the property for parking. Eventually after paying many tickets..my boyfriend called a friend of his who was never elected to public office, but was nonetheless influential in the small-town political apparatus and it stopped as quickly as it began. Hands washing hands, with no voting necessary.