In Defense of Ill-Informed Voting

[alchemi]

I just got back from voting. Judging from the 13 pages of options, I voted in roughly eight million different races mostly for and against people of whom I have never heard. In fact, I probably only had solid opinions about the gubanatorial race, the senate race and the house race (and my vote will neither help Al Green, nor hurt Kay Bailey

Comments

[alsoname]

I did vote for John McCain, but only in a Republican primary against George W. Bush

I did that too!

[ethernight]

It's also pretty quick and easy to get a voters guide by a group you trust. I've gotten emails about voters guides from NORML, HRC and the AFA without even trying... and hah - while typing this comment, one came in from my local Libertarian group. Of course, that's because I'm signed up for the action alerts for each of these organizations, which might indicate I'm one of the nutty ones anyway. But it wouldn't be hard for non-nutty folk to ask Google to point them to the voters guide of a group they trust.

[alchemi]

That is definitely true. Though I will say - one of the reason I am so strongly in favor of uninformed voting is I honestly think you'd have to have an almost photographic memory in order to use those to cover the elections on the ballot I had. It was so scary - 13 pages, with I'm guessing 7 races per page and an average of about 2.5 candidates per race.

Now I will admit - it's certainly possible. (And it is reasonable to be fairly well informed, particularly if you care about local issues). The hard races (county assessor, municipal judge, etc) were low low profile races.

Though I suppose I have no objection to taking the voting guide into the booth if permitted.

[ethernight]

"Though I suppose I have no objection to taking the voting guide into the booth if permitted."

I typically fill out the sample ballot at home, then take that into the booth with me. (Unless it's like 3 issues that I'm very familiar with.)