reflecting on my voting record and life as a migrant

[amw]

For entirely selfish reasons, i really wish the US election season was limited, like it is in pretty much every other democracy. The reason is that apparently no matter my intent beforehand, i still end up getting suckered into following the horse race, for nigh on TWO FUCKING YEARS out of every four. It's ridiculous. "She doesn't even go here

Comments

[coercedbynutmeg]

The US used to be more republican in their elections, like until the early 20th century, the Senators (upper federal legislative house) were selected by their respective states and not a popular citizen vote. I'd honestly prefer returning to that because it would get rid of a lot of money in elections. Like, you'll hear about some company in Connecticut throwing $20MM towards a Senate candidate in Minnesota and it's just ridiculous. Let the legislatures, which are more attuned to the needs of their specific states, pick the senators instead.

I recently found out that voting in Australia is mandatory and you get fined if you don't, which sounds crazy. I do think ignorant voters are probably worse on the whole than abstaining voters, especially since the impacts of proposals (both positive and negative) are typically understated. Like, in 2008, California voted for this high-speed train from SF to LA. 16 years later, it's not built, it's not even close, and they've squandered a gazillion dollars on it. But yeah, for a lot of laws/proposals/taxes/amendments on the ballots, there's room for a 1 sentence summary, and if you get into the polling station uninformed, it's too late to do research, so people just pick choices at random. Or based on whatever the doorknob flyer told them to vote for.

[annaserene]

While living in Northern Ireland in 2016, there was an election and a local guy at work mentioned he didn't vote. A woman from Belgium asked him what will happen to him since he didn't vote. It turns out voting is compulsory in Belgium, which honestly sounds good to me considering all the voter suppression in the U.S., for instance. But it's true that in the U.S. there are so many smaller elections with candidates nobody's heard of, and it's important to make informed decisions.

[annaserene]

Well, "informed"... Some people vote based on whatever they saw on TikTok or Facebook.

[amw]

I liked the mandatory voting in Australia thing. The fine is trivial, like $20 or something, and it's waived if you have good reason like being overseas or incapacitated. It also doesn't mean it's mandatory to pick a candidate - you can just go in there and spoil your ballot if you like - it's more about making sure everyone does their civic duty. But it's attacked by people both from an elitist angle (those too stupid/ignorant/lazy to vote shouldn't get a say) and from a progressive angle (mandatory voting favors conservative policies because if people are unsure about something they will inevitably lean toward keeping the status quo)... And those are fair points.

At the same time i often find the arguments against mandatory voting disingenuous when they are in the context of a country that doesn't have it, because literally everybody already involved in the process is going to lose power if more people voted, so there is little incentive for anyone to advocate for changing the system.

I don't hate the idea of state legislatures picking senators. In some countries the senate (or its equivalent) is picked by the elites (e.g. UK and Canada), or in other countries it's entirely party list based on popular vote (e.g. Australia). It seems sensible for a second body that acts as a check or balance against a first body which comprised of winner-takes-all regional representatives should be elected or appointed in a different manner, otherwise you're just reinforcing the same power structures.

I dunno, there's so many different ways to set up democracy and there are a lot of problems, especially with moneyed interests having an outsized influence despite "one person one vote". One thing i do think, though, is that even though autocracies may be better positioned to get shit done, i still believe that authentically engaging people of the community in decisions that affect them is a better way. I hope that people exasperated at the gridlock in American politics don't look to authoritarianism as the answer, but draw inspiration from democracies that have actually gotten the shit passed that keeps getting stuck in America.