quotations about voting
Suppose that half of the registered electorate abstains. Things take a serious turn for the voters and for the government established by them. Without question, the political skepticism of fully one half of the body of society will cause a crisis in the unchallenged convictions of the other half. And if we consider that such skepticism will be the product of a calculated, well-founded, considered indifference, and that it will be the fruit of intellect or liberty ... you can readily appreciate the defeat that such a state of affairs will inflict upon governmentalism.
ANSELME BELLEGARRIGUE
Anarchist Manifesto
Not voting is voting to hand your power over, to throw it away and give it to somebody whose interests are going to be harmful to your own.
ERIC LIU
"Why a decentralized swarm of resistance is the best way to contain Trump", Washington Post, April 25, 2017
I have always voted and likely always will. That's probably because I'm educated, white and privileged. And socialised from birth to do it. I also know, in the rational part of my brain, that voting is now about as pointless as rooting for your favourite rugby team to win. It's fleeting, ultimately quite meaningless, and changes nothing much in the overall scheme of things. It's essentially just tribalism.
RACHEL STEWART
"Are we in the dying days of democracy?", NZ Herald, April 26, 2017
Our democracy was created by men who fought for the right to vote so that their descendants could exercise their right not to vote.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
What counted with my father was playing his part in the democratic process. What my dad deeply cared about was having his say in the way his country was run. What was important to my old man was voting. Democracy was real to my father. Freedom was not an abstract concept to him. It was why he had once put on a uniform and killed other men, and watched his friends die, and why his entire upper torso was a tangled mess of scar tissue from a German grenade.
TONY PARSONS
"Voting is the most important thing a man can do", GQ, April 24, 2017
The age of computer voting machines has brought its own innovations and peculiarities ... The fact that vote tampering can now be conducted secretly and invisibly through software manipulation is also a perfect cover for the would-be crook. If we can't document with certainty the cases where this may have occurred already, it is precisely because digital ballots, without a paper back-up, can be handled in any number of ways without leaving fingerprints. Everything is in place for the perfect electoral crime, which is of course the dirty politician's favorite kind.
ANDREW GUMBEL
Steal This Vote