voting closed

[firstredmoon]

i'll be tallying up the votes and making graphics for the winners over the next day or so.

many of you are receiving a warning for not voting. if you also do not reach the posts quota this month, you will be forced to leave the community, and may not reapply for a month. so be sure to reach your quota! you have two more days in which to do so.

Comments

[the_98th_cent]

I read up on it and it said that 2% of voters in a compulsory system will vote at random, being apolitical. So in a close election, it is a complete matter of luck whoever wins.

People less likely to vote are also likely to have less interest in politics, meaning that even those not in the 2% may just be voting for the best-looking politician. That's also likely to happen here, where people who haven't had time to read every story will vote without having had the full picture.

Finally, it is the unalienable right of man to choose whether he will vote for what may be a poor field of choices. The Australian ideal of democracy does not encompass the secular objections of voters (Jehovah's Witnesses aside) such as anarchists.

Posting two pieces is like paying taxes: it contributes to the community. But voting is simply harvesting opinions - they are ephemeral, and exist only in our heads. As such, while the dollars you give to your government are of an established value, the judgment you make in choosing a candidate may be worthless, having neither knowledge or interest behind it.

Either way, I respectfully reserve the right to not vote, if I don't think that there's a candidate who deserves to be crowned, or if I don't consider myself to have read enough entries to make a balanced decision.

Sammy

[firstredmoon]

the whole voting thing is meant to foster competition. you can choose not to vote if you like, but i reserve the right to boot people for not voting for two consecutive months. not voting twice in a row is a marker of inactivity/not keeping up with the community, i think. i would consider letting people donkey vote, somehow proving with their vote that they have stayed in touch with the community (not sure how). that way i would know that they did do the homework that's required to vote, but didn't want to place a vote for some reason. what do you think of that ?

i think i introduced the idea of warnings for not voting pretty early on, and no-one except you seems to have a problem with it. if other people start objecting, then i'll reconsider. but this system works great in other communities so there's no reason it shouldn't work well here.

and you should think about offering people a better choice of candidates by entering the monthly comp next month. :)