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Wednesday, September 15, 2010

I Voted (And I'm About It)

This is a list of reasons given by various people to me at work today as to why they failed to vote in today's Wisconsin primaries. These are all actual reasons.

*Slept in (x3)
*Working two jobs (x2)
*Too busy (x2)
*At work all day (x2) (note: the law requires an employer to provide sufficient time away from work to cast a vote)
*Never voted before, juggling three kids
*Driving mother to hospital
*Didn't know any of the candidates
*Registered to vote in Alabama (note: this person did not vote in Alabama either)
*Didn't know they were today
*Didn't know there was such a thing as primaries
*Not registed to vote (note: in Wisconsin, one can register to vote right there at the polls)
*Politics not important (note: this person proceeded to explain that proposed high-speed rail line set to pass through town, municipal elections, city budgets, police, fire, roads, electrical grid were also not important to him re: politics)

Two additional people had not voted yet but intended to, two people did not vote and gave no reason, and five people actually, you know, voted. That figure of five includes myself.

Which makes for 5 votes, 2 maybes, and 19 nonvoters. Not counting the maybes, that is a 20.8% turnout. It could be anywhere from 19.2%-26.9% depending on the final fate of the maybes.

In conclusion, mandatory voting is enforced in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Cyprus, Ecuador, Fiji, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Nauru, Peru, Singapore, part of Switzerland, Turkey, and Uruguay.
It's mandatory, but not enforced, in Bolivia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, France, Gabon, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Thailand, and the state of Georgia.
The linked agency, International IDEA, isn't really sure about DR Congo, Lebanon or Panama.

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