How do we overcome voter apathy?

[Cowboy89]

Originally Posted by Thunderball

I should add that I don't think mandatory voting is helpful either. Sure, you'll have 99% turnout, but a huge amount of spoiled ballots if people still feel their vote doesn't count.

Or worse yet the election of the Silly party . . . . or the Very Silly party

[cheevers]

I don't understand why they don't have voting stations in the universities, so students can vote between classes. I know it would be a little tough logistically, but seems like a good way to get young people voting. Plus as a student I know how lazy we can be, and the idea of just being able to vote without leaving campus seems far easier than having to go all the way across the city just to go to my registered voting station.

[jolinar of malkshor]

Originally Posted by Cowboy89

Or worse yet the election of the Silly party . . . . or the Very Silly party

Like I said, getting people out to vote will not necessarily make people informed voters. But I think making it a requirement would make people think about it a bit more since they have to vote. Involving the educational system would help aswell not just the kids put the parents I think.

[RougeUnderoos]

This whole "there is nothing/nobody worth voting for" bit sounds like a cop-out to me and I'd be interested to see how many people who say it could name the candidates in their riding.

One party in the spectrum must hold some amount of appeal for pretty much everyone but the most out-there Albertans. There's a left-party and a right-party and a couple pretty much in the centre. If the environment is your thing there's a party for you.
Commies, separatists, the list goes on.

What are people expecting? What would you consider "worth voting for"?

[underGRADFlame]

Implement fixed dates for elections, drop the british parliamentary system and move towards a US system. Have a elected Provincial Governor, and a elected house.

[jolinar of malkshor]

Originally Posted by Thunderball

I should add that I don't think mandatory voting is helpful either. Sure, you'll have 99% turnout, but a huge amount of spoiled ballots if people still feel their vote doesn't count.

1.) Good idea in theory, but there's the grim spectre of vote tampering. All of a sudden one vote for party x becomes 100.

I understand that there maybe security concerns but I think it could be overcome, I think everyone should have a voter card with a specific number.

2.)
Well, there's already a full day, plus several advance voting days.

Like I said though, make it over the weekend so it can be a family thing. Also, 1 day obviously isn't enough. Things come up at the last minute. There is nothing wrong with a little more time.

3.) Do we really need to spend $225 million for provincial elections and over $1.5 billion for federal elections? This becomes a rock or hardplace argument.

It is a lot of money. Spread out over 4-5 years does reduce it a bit but it is still a lot. One thing though is there is going to be an election so why not get as many people out as possible. Maybe it needs to be a fine thing. Maybe we should get charged 25 buck a year extra in taxes and if you vote you get the money back, kind of like a deposit. I don't know, just through out suggestions. I think it would be an incentive.

4.) Waste of time electorally speaking. Okay, all the candidates suck... now what? Why not just stay home?

Staying at home to me is just not an option. People could atleast come out and say hey, all you guys suck, I want to vote for someone but there just isn't anyone. People can then get an accurate account of this and maybe it would encourge more people to throw there name in the hat if they feel like they could do a better job. By not coming out to vote all it says it that you just don't give a sh*t.

5.) This is the big one. I think Mixed Member Plurality is ideal for Alberta. 85 seat legislature, 43 FPTP (existing system) and 42 by PR. This way, everyone still has a constituent MLA, and every vote counts. The Alliance would have 2 seats, the Greens 1, the NDP 3 more, etc. People who feel their vote is worthless if they don't like the incumbent party/candidate still have a reason to vote... get enough popular vote for some of their MLAs and maybe force a minority that has to listen to them.

Agreed.

[jolinar of malkshor]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

This whole "there is nothing/nobody worth voting for" bit sounds like a cop-out to me and I'd be interested to see how many people who say it could name the candidates in their riding.

One party in the spectrum must hold some amount of appeal for pretty much everyone but the most out-there Albertans. There's a left-party and a right-party and a couple pretty much in the centre. If the environment is your thing there's a party for you.
Commies, separatists, the list goes on.

What are people expecting? What would you consider "worth voting for"?

I agree.

[FlamesAddiction]

I have to admit, I am pretty apathetic about voting. None of the big parties reflect my views, and it just seems like a waste of time to vote for a smaller party when 5-10% of the popular vote still gets them no power.

If we could adopt a senate system (provincially and federally), where senators are appointed from each party based on the percentage they earned in the popular vote, then I think voter turnout would really increase.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by underGRADFlame

Implement fixed dates for elections, drop the british parliamentary system and move towards a US system. Have a elected Provincial Governor, and a elected house.

err what happens in a minority non-functional government then?

[Ozy_Flame]

Implement conscription and mandatory military service. That will get everyone out to vote in a furor really quick.

[underGRADFlame]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

err what happens in a minority non-functional government then?

About the same amount that happens now.... not much . Rules on how the system would work would be seriously modified. Truthfully I'd support going to a 2 party system like the US.

[underGRADFlame]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Implement conscription and mandatory military service. That will get everyone out to vote in a furor really quick.

Yeah bet you'd get a tad more than 52% turn out... maybe even above 60%

[jolinar of malkshor]

Originally Posted by underGRADFlame

Yeah bet you'd get a tad more than 52% turn out... maybe even above 60%

It wasn't even 52% it was 41-42%

[gottabekd]

Originally Posted by jar_e

An uneducated vote is worse than a no vote.

I pondered that yesterday. I was certainly uneducated about the parties/candidates in this election, but I decided to vote anyways. Yes, ideally I would have spent some time in the previous month educating myself, but that didn't happen.

But I figured a lot of the people voting probably aren't educated either, I might as well cancel their vote out.

[redforever]

I do not buy the argument of "show me someone" I can vote for. Let me put it bluntly. If you as a citizen of this country and of this province can not find anyone you are in tune with, well, what does that say about you? To me it says that you are someone who will never be satisfied and that a viable alternative or option for you will never exist.

I simply have no patience for people who do not get out and vote, no matter what their excuses. Hopefully there will never come a time when our democracry no longer exists because we the citizens, never took the time to go and vote and protect our democracy.

Each and every one of us has a duty to protect our democracy. Get out there and vote.

[jolinar of malkshor]

Originally Posted by redforever

I do not buy the argument of "show me someone" I can vote for. Let me put it bluntly. If you as a citizen of this country and of this province can not find anyone you are in tune with, well, what does that say about you? To me it says that you are someone who will never be satisfied and that a viable alternative or option for you will never exist.

I simply have no patience for people who do not get out and vote, no matter what their excuses. Hopefully there will never come a time when our democracry no longer exists because we the citizens, never took the time to go and vote and protect our democracy.

Each and every one of us has a duty to protect our democracy. Get out there and vote.

Exactly.

[browna]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

This whole "there is nothing/nobody worth voting for" bit sounds like a cop-out to me and I'd be interested to see how many people who say it could name the candidates in their riding.

What are people expecting? What would you consider "worth voting for"?

Exactly.

Provincial politics especially, you're not having long winded campaigns with candidates geting face time on TV. If Obama was in Calgary Elbow, not a US senator, and no one knew him of him before, would anyone vote for him?

I was going to say they need celebrities....but....look at Arthur Kent. Likely the most recognizeable name across the world when you mention CNN and the Gulf War. Maybe not a flavour of the month "Entertainment Tonight Canada" celebrity that's in and out of rehab and jail, but as big a "celebrity" you'd likely ever see likely on the Canadian provincial politics scale for the $120K per year job.

One thinks that maybe Arthur Kent should've been the leader of some party, even the Liberals, last night.

Then he would have the finanaces to have flashy TV ads the past few weeks show pictures of him in Baghdad (for those who forgot were too yong back in 1991), with missles crashing down on the city behind him..then a montage of news clips calling him the "Scud Stud", and he could take the podium and talk about the unauthorized use of his voice in "Charlie Wilson's War".

Any of those points would likely "impress" and sway certainly undecided voters, and likely bring in new voters and he'd win by a landslide.

Instead, the guy that most in North America who remember he first Gulf War could remember the name of when you mention CNN, loses a provincial vote in Canada for an MLA.

So I guess its not a celebrity thing either...as I said, there's not enough time and money in any Canadian political campaigns to be on TV to be recognized by Sally Housecoat and Johnny Lunchpail unless your running for PM and have you own commericals and are in news clips on the news breaks inbetween Simpsons and Family Guy.
That also means people have to go through the streneous effort themselves to figure out what these lesser known candidates and parties stand for....but they'll get to that research/effort if there's still awake after watching American Idol and as long as they don't click on that popup ad which takes them to an internet flash game sponsored by Orbitz. Same criteria applies for going out to vote.

Maybe Facebook should be involved...or text messaging?

[Traditional_Ale]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

This whole "there is nothing/nobody worth voting for" bit sounds like a cop-out to me and I'd be interested to see how many people who say it could name the candidates in their riding.

One party in the spectrum must hold some amount of appeal for pretty much everyone but the most out-there Albertans. There's a left-party and a right-party and a couple pretty much in the centre. If the environment is your thing there's a party for you.
Commies, separatists, the list goes on.

What are people expecting? What would you consider "worth voting for"?

Ralph Klein
Bill Clinton
Winston Churchill
Ronald Regan
Dwight Eisenhower
Queen Elizabeth (if not a monarch)
Tony Blair
Martin Luther King
Nelson Mandela
Margaret Thatcher

...and lets keep in mind that although NOW these are all very powerful figures, they all started at the beginning like anyone in politics. But they made it to the top through having some brains, ideas, charisma, and a touch of the right kind of humility.

So again I say, find me someone worth voting for that even has a little bit of even one of the four qualities I listed above.

Personally, I don't think there is going to be anyone in Alberta for a very long time who might even come close to Ralph's legacy. Love him or hate him, WHAT A LEADER!!! Alberta was truly blessed to have him, and none of the losers I have seen this time round have inspiried me at all.

[Wookie]

Originally Posted by redforever

I do not buy the argument of "show me someone" I can vote for. Let me put it bluntly. If you as a citizen of this country and of this province can not find anyone you are in tune with, well, what does that say about you? To me it says that you are someone who will never be satisfied and that a viable alternative or option for you will never exist.

I simply have no patience for people who do not get out and vote, no matter what their excuses. Hopefully there will never come a time when our democracy no longer exists because we the citizens, never took the time to go and vote and protect our democracy.

Each and every one of us has a duty to protect our democracy. Get out there and vote.

Well, right now some could argue it's their right not to vote. Their right not to participate in any religion and their right to stay at home and watch TV on election night. That's part of what makes a democracy a democracy. You've got a problem with it, go out, get elected by the 40% that do vote and change something.

[browna]

Originally Posted by Traditional_Ale

Ralph Klein
Bill Clinton
Winston Churchill
Ronald Regan
Dwight Eisenhower
Queen Elizabeth (if not a monarch)
Tony Blair
Martin Luther King
Nelson Mandela
Margaret Thatcher

...and lets keep in mind that although NOW these are all very powerful figures, they all started at the beginning like anyone in politics. But they made it to the top through having some brains, ideas, charisma, and a touch of the right kind of humility.

So again I say, find me someone worth voting for that even has a little bit of even one of the four qualities I listed above.

Personally, I don't think there is going to be anyone in Alberta for a very long time who might even come close to Ralph's legacy. Love him or hate him, WHAT A LEADER!!! Alberta was truly blessed to have him, and none of the losers I have seen this time round have inspiried me at all.

Interesting list, lets take the easiest one.

Klein.

If you're not in his riding, do then vote for the PC canaidate in your riding, no matter how much of a weak, non leader, fence sitter, the particular candidate is?