Early voting starts tommorrow. Don't vote.

Early voting starts tomorrow. Between now and the closing of the polls on November 2, you are going to be urged, shamed, and cajoled into voting. You will be told that it is your right and your duty to vote.

You will be told you have an obligation to vote. You do not; just ask Barack Obama. Before becoming president, as a U. S. Senator, he abstained from voting on very many occasions and on very important issues. He simply voted “Present” time and time again. So, if Barack Obama did not bother to vote while serving in the US Senate, why should you?

Do you know who Bill Frist is? He is a famous Tennessean who was former Senate majority leader. Before he was elected to public office he didn't vote for 18 years when he could have voted. You may have heard of Meg Whitman? She is running for Governor of California and she was not even registered to vote until 2002. John Edwards? He was a former Senator from North Carolina who almost got the Democratic Party nomination for President. He has since been disgraced in a sex scandal. Anyway, until he ran for office he hardly ever voted. My point is, that if famous politicians like Bill Frist, Meg Whitman and John Edwards did not bother to vote until they decided to run for office, why don't you just wait until you decide to run for office and then start voting.

Remember two years ago when you voted for Obama and the people who wanted you to vote for him told you that if you did not that any number of bad things might happen: homes would get foreclosed, unemployment would increase, a war would continue, and we would all die from global warming.

Well, you voted for Obama and all of those things happened anyway, except we did not all die from global warming, but his administration did nothing about global warming so you wouldn't have died from global warming anyway.

OK, last time you wanted to vote because that was a historic election and the Nation elected its first Black president. I understand that. You did your part. You were part of history. That is not the case this time. This election is just boring. It is not a historical election. Be honest. How excited can you get about Jim Cooper?

Some people will tell you that not voting is a sign of a weak democracy and a sign that you just don’t care. Well, I am here to tell you that not voting is not a sign of a weak democracy or not caring. You could interpret not voting as a sign that things must be going so well, that people see no reason to vote. When the actions of government are so unimportant that people don’t feel compelled to vote, that is a sign that people must be pretty content and pretty certain that those who do vote will make the right decision. Not voting is a vote of confidence.

You should not let anyone shame you into voting. You should not vote unless you are real informed and confident in your decision. Don't let anyone tell you it is your patriotic duty to vote. It is unpatriotic to cast an uninformed vote. What if you vote the wrong way and the person you vote for does something to really screw up the world? Do you want that responsibility?

Voting casually without being certain of your vote is wrong. Casting your vote should be a sober decision. Casting an unsure vote is sort of like driving drunk. So, if you don’t feel certain that you are qualified to vote or have adequately studied the issues; please don’t vote. If you haven't been paying attention, don't vote. If you get most of your news from Saturday Night Live and The Colbert Report, please do not vote.

Some people will tell you that if you don’t vote you have no right to complain. I don't know who started that lie. It is just not true. By not voting, you are not giving up the right to complain.

I don’t want you to vote. You see, if you don’t vote, my vote carries more weight. If only 33% of the people vote, it is like I am voting for three people; if 50% of the people vote it is like I am voting for only two people. I don’t want you to dilute my vote. Let me vote for you. I have studied the issues. I am qualified to vote.

Voting is difficult. It is very complicated to figure out how to do it right. The new electronic machines are real difficult to figure out and anyway, with the electronic machines, how do your even know your vote is counted? Also, the lines are often real long and it can take a lot of your time.

You do know that if you vote, you will probably get called to jury duty? Also, I understand that this year immigration officials will be at the voting places looking for illegal immigrants. There are always a lot of police at the voting places too. A lot of outstanding warrants are served on Election Day. Voter registration records are public records so the police know who will be voting so it is easy pickings to serve warrants. I have heard that officials also stake out the voting place to look for people who are behind on their child support.

So, if I were you, I wouldn’t vote.

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