No Wasted Votes ...

First of all, everyone go over to my good friend Karen’s blog and congratulate her on her new job! It’s a great opportunity and she is pretty seriously excited about it, and with good reason.

Congrats Karen!!

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So did everyone watch that awesome Presidential debate Tuesday night? Wasn’t it great they way those two guys kept giving all of those substantive, intelligent answers? And the way they were so courageous telling people the truth, even if it hurt them politically? And how they totally refrained from taking pot shots at each other?

Yeah, me neither.

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Speaking of politics, and my good friends, Dana announced yesterday on her blog that she has decided to vote for Libertarian candidate Bob Barr.

I can see doing that. Given how much our government continues to intrude on our daily lives and how it continues to expand at a stunning rate, I can totally see people moving more and more towards Libertarian beliefs.

But, that’s not what this is about. What this is about is that many people called Dana’s vote “wasted." They argue that any vote for a candidate that isn’t a major party candidate or has no chance at all of winning is “wasted.” Dana said that since she lives in Illinois, and that Obama (or any Democrat for that matter) is going to that state so big, she figured any vote not for Obama is a “wasted” vote. But, if that were the case then wouldn’t ANY vote for ANY losing candidate be considered wasted?

So, I got to thinking about this idea of a wasted vote and I’ve come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as a wasted vote.

Yeah, I agree that a lot of people who aren’t really informed go out and vote anyway. And I agree that a lot of people who should vote, don’t. And yes, A LOT of people vote against their own self-interest all the time. And yes, most of them don’t really realize they are doing so. But, that is their right. And yes it's true that a lot of people are very susceptible to campaign propaganda and believe all kinds of silly bullshit and vote that way too. But, there isn't much that can be done about that either. And I admit that sometimes it drives me crazy when I hear people who I know don't believe the crap they are saying, claim they are gong to vote a certain way. And, some people are single issue voters. I don’t think that’s a great plan, but again, that’s what they believe so I respect that.

But, people vote the way they do for their own various reasons. They vote their politics, their values, their beliefs and their conscience.

We’ve all voted for lost causes many times. Whether it’s for President or going out to vote against a stupid local initiative that is clearly going to pass, but you just know it’s a terrible idea. Or to vote for something you think is the right thing to do, even if you know it’s going to lose. Hell, I even think it’s okay to leave parts of the ballot blank. I’ve done it a couple of times. There have been local or state races where I just found both or all candidates so despicable that I just didn’t bother with that race and voted on the other races. Here locally, they have a habit of lumping all the unopposed people into a “vote for one, vote for all” group. Since there is almost always at least one person in there I could never vote for, I leave that blank too.

So anyway, as long as people are voting for someone, and doing so because they honestly believe it’s the right thing to do, and they're completely (or at least mostly) comfortable with their choice, then I don’t think that vote has been wasted.