I feel terrible for you, my poor cousins across the pond. I mean how on earth are you going to vote between those two wonderful presidential candidates? Do you think that voting should be mandatory? ie. Should people be fined if they don't vote? It happens in some countries...

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2000

Answers

Well actually I think it's a pretty easy decision, but that's just me. This campaigning that's been going on must have really got on your nerves; I mean look at them, it's so embarassing. I can sort of understand why there isn't normally a higher turnout at the polls. If people took a more active interest in politics perhaps there wouldn't be such awful, degrading campaigns. Did I bring something up that I shouldn't have?

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2000

This is the 3rd election in a row that my vote won't count: last two elections, I was registered in AR and this time in TX. At least it opens me up to do some possible good for 3rd parties (cough cough Nader cough cough). I don't think people should be forced to vote...seems a little anti-freedomish to me. But I think it's ridiculous that people don't. They make it really easy now. I mean, you can vote at the mall, the HEB and half a million other places, and if you do it before Friday, you don't even have to find the right polling place for your precinct (considering I don't even know what my precinct is, this is a good thing).

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2000

I've lived abroad my entire 30 years of life and I've never voted. I feel a bit of a non-citizen (boo hoo), but being originally from the UK does have its perks, I suppose. You know, like tea, Cadburys and Black Adder.

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2000

The presidential elections every four years get on my nerves because of a couple of factors: 1) due to how much money it costs to run an effective campaign, and how many states keep having primaries and caucuses earlier and earlier, the campaign season actually lasts about one and a half years when I think they could probably squeeze it all into about four months, and 2) a lot of eligible American voters are fucking shmucks who will fall for anything; the politicians and media outlets know that, so they feed us as much bullshit as they can shovel, because they can get away with all of it, none of which means a damn thing. The only things that matter are the character of the candidate and the beliefs and platform of his/her party. Sometimes you get a perfect combination in which you think very highly of both at the same time. Sometimes you're not so lucky.

No way should voting be mandatory. That really runs against the grain of American personal freedom.

Can't we get tea, Cadbury's and Black Adder in the U.S.? I'm sure we do...

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2000

We do indeed get tea, Cadbury's and Black Adder here in the U S of A. :) And I'd gladly move to London in a heartbeat. But America's not all bad. 24-hour Chinese food delivery, businesses like kozmo.com and the sheer vastness and variety of topographical delights earn the US some kudos.

Encourage your friends to educate themselves re: which candidate best supports their views. Here's one link that might help: http://www.speakout.com/SelectSmart/ (it matches you up with the candidate who best reflects your POV on 17 major issues) or http://www.speakout.com/VoteMatch/default.asp -- both are on a non- partisan website. The first quiz allows you to weight each issue individually and the second allows you to weight types of concerns/issues (i.e. social, trade, moral, etc.) and to choose which type of issues ar emost important to you.

Unsurprisingly, I matched up with third party candidates, as I always have, as far back as I can remember. The political horses I back never make it to the big race. It's always a matter (in my case, anyway) of voting against the scariest candidate. Which is a sad thing.

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2000

Well that's my point, you see. I can get all those good things about England elsewhere. Actually I first saw Blackadder in the States on PBS.

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2000

Except the Cadbury's in North America is made with inferior chocolate. It's a fact, don't ask me why, but Cadbury's admits it.

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2000

My friend says it's because they can put wax in it like our other fine American chocolates....

I'm a lifelong Dem and must vote for Mr Gore, but neither of these guys is very sparkly....I definitely cannot vote for a man that only has 4 hour workdays as governor. He'll just collapse from exhaustion as Pres. He doesn't have the stamina...

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2000

Milla, I've got your ailment. Everyone I vote for loses. I'm thinking of just voting opposites to see if I can jinx the guys I don't want to win.

My main reason for voting is the local races anyway. It's more important to me to keep the yahoos off the school board than worry about which of the clones will give the State of the Union address.

I'm VERY distressed about my House of Rep. race. My current representative is a bad political joke, and I used to say I'd vote for her opponent if he or she could pass the "oxygen in/carbon dioxide out" test. Then I found out the county Republicans managed to find the only black woman to the right of Pat Buchanan to run against her. I honestly believe this woman was custom-designed by the Republican National Committee in a secret underground laboratory. So I guess I'll just have to write-in someone else's name for that race.

But for President? I only know who I'm going to vote *against.*

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2000

I've often wondered about whether there was wax in my chocolate. Now why would they do that? To raise the melting point or something? It displeases me. The key to the election, for me, is that I am not voting for either one of these jokers per se, but for their handlers, the shadowy figures behind the scenes. Who is tweaked by the better puppeteer?

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2000

Oh man, what a bummer about Cadbury's. Much more distressing than the election. I'm going to sooth myself with some halloween M&Ms. Really though, voting for Ralph Nader would be great. But, I'm afraid the race is so close this year that a vote for Nader would be a vote for Bush, which, I personally don't want. Also, as far as voting goes, I wish I had this list, but on NPR radio recently they listed at least 10 public voting events through the years in which the outcome was determined by only one vote. I think it is really cool to vote.

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2000

Gardanna, I'm voting for Nader, too. If I vote tomorrow at the mall, maybe I can keep from standing in a line with a bunch of fuckwads bellowing about how much they love George W.

I agree that voting shouldn't be mandatory. Like Paul said, there are enough dumb-asses in this country. Mandatory voting would give them a louder, more easily swayed voice.

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2000

Mandatory voting would give them a louder, more easily swayed voice.

True. And ditto on mandatory participation being against the principles of freedom we supposedly hold dear. However, since the gov't is SUPPOSED to be BY the people, FOR the people, perhaps mandatory voting--where we had to vote by reviewing issues instead of voting for one particular person--would more accurately reflect what the majority of the public really wants. For better or worse.

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2000

you gotta love a discussion about politics and chocolate...next week..guns and pantyhose. I do have to say, I would love to vote for Ralph Nader (one of my college roommates had a corvair) but I would hate it more if dubya won, so I'm gonna have to do the Gore thing. Fruitbat, I think it was to raise the melting point, so they can leave them hanging around longer. I think some ice cream has things like xanthin (?) gum, etc to keep it from melting so fast. Mary Ellen, I hear you about school board. I'm thinking about going to one of the bigger churches here on Sunday, and see who they tell people to vote for for schoolboard. Then I'll take the opposite stance. It's hard to find out who's an extremist before the election (they really keep it hidden) except from the church folk.

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2000

My hubby and I make a fun date of election day. After work we ride our bikes to the polling place and then ride to a restaurant for dinner and then maybe just putz around for a while then we ride home and watch the election results. Its makes it more fun especially if the election is not so exciting, like this one. We do have some important local stuff going on tho. I don't think voting should be mandatory, but I do think everybody should vote. My hubby sent his son (who lives 3 blocks away from us) a postcard to remind him to vote.

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2000

is it so wrong to sit gleefully in front of the TV, set on CNN, watching the stupid Bush party try to spin a DUI charge.. is it wrong to giggle like a little girl?

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2000

http://www.ivillage.com/election/candidates/match/quiz

Go take this quiz and your decision will be made. According to this, I should vote for Harry Browne. I've never heard of him. Sorry, I don't know how to make links.

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2000

No Gardanna, it's not. Bush is an embarassment. Just look at the dork; he looks like the adult Alfred E. Newman. He's been a disaster for Texas.

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2000

I've always been in favor of a "neither of the above" category. Why should we waste a vote for either puppet? What really matters are your local reps like state senator and congress person. All your local county and city reps and the propositions. That's what really matters. Not the jokes er jerks at the top. James

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2000

Yeah, James, maybe so. But I worry about the Supreme Court and our foreign policy. An overwhelmingly conservative court and George Bush calling the shots on foreign policy gives me a chill up the spine.

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2000

Amen, Brother Bubba! "Read my Lips, No New Texans" I know Dubya is not a real Texan but you get the drift. He sure has screw over the Lone Star State, hasn't he?

-- Anonymous, November 05, 2000

I seem to remember all the supreme court nominees that were shot down in flames by the "senate" because of this or that regardless of what the president said. The real power in this country lays with the senate and congress. And forieng policy is the same. Good strong legislators are what are important to this form of government, not a figure head president manipulated by a small group of behind the scenes power brokers. Most of the things that really matter in your life are on the local level. Taxes, propositions, school boards, county supervisors, sheriff, judges. These are the people that affect your daily lives. It amazes me, working in city services like I do, how ignorant people are of local politics, and who runs their infrastructure. They know more about how smooth Monicas lips are and if she swallows than who's enacting zoning regulations and who is setting utility rates in their hometowns. We have an energy crisis in San Diego now because people were too busy worrying about Monica and Billary and not looking at the effects of an unregulated energy market. James

-- Anonymous, November 05, 2000

I hope people turn out at the polls... if only for critical local elections, propositions and ballot measures. We have so many on our ticket, I have actually had to take notes. And, of course, the lies are flying fast and furious and the wording confusing, "...Yes I do NOT want..." or "NO, we should NOT prevent..." What is normally a yawner issue (school board) is pretty hot here now as our last superintendent left such a huge mess (and went on down to Dallas to leave more steaming piles) and we even have the state auditors and the Feds sniffing around. Not sure what the issues are where you folks live, but vote anyway (please) - at least on the stuff you have an opinion. Every single time I vote (and it is so easy for me, right around the corner), I keep thinking about people in other countries who are killed trying to do the same thing. And, no matter what, I like to think my vote counts - at least on the local level. ---- ---- I was thinking, wouldn't it be fun if our presidential candidates had to take, let's say, a 50 question, multiple choice test? The questions would be culled from the CBEST, SAT, GRE and the INS citizenship test... be kinda entertaining, yes? Call me crazy, but I really want our leaders to be SOMEWHAT literate and a bit on the ball. ----

-- Anonymous, November 05, 2000

If you want our leaders to be a little bit literate, don't vote Bush. That sumbitch keeps baseball trophies on the bookshelves in the fucking governor's office instead of...well, books. This is true.

-- Anonymous, November 05, 2000

Being a pretty damn libral person, I can't vote for Bush. Nuff said.

Oh, completely off topic: Gwen, even though I had never even heard of Pavement, after you said they had a cover of "No More Kings", I rushed to download it. Just out of love for you and because that's the best damn Schoolhouse Rock! song there is, including the "I'm Just a Bill" one. Now that's devotion. Actually, there's really no reason to tell you this. And Pavement doesn't sound half bad, may have to look into them.

-- Anonymous, November 05, 2000

I'm glad you told me, though. They were live and all wasted or something when they sang that. They're even better on the CDs. But I love the way they sing that song. They should have been on that Schoolhouse Rock compilation CD. Maybe they were, though. I haven't seen it in years.

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2000

If you want our leaders to be a little bit literate, don't vote Bush.

Word. Check this link out: http://www.bettybowers.com/bush.html

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2000

Milla, I checked the site and it would all be very funny if it wasn't so tragic for the people who live in Texas. Did you know that Dubya claims kin with the royal family. Go figure.

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2000

That explains the ears, then.

-- Anonymous, November 07, 2000

i voted for kid rock!!! i reakky did right his name in!!!

-- Anonymous, November 08, 2000

does any one no who won???? no one can tell me thanx

-- Anonymous, November 10, 2000

Its still up in the air Floos, it all depends on the final vote count in Florida, and that could take a few more days. But I'm afraid its between Gore and Bush, not Kid Rock :)

-- Anonymous, November 11, 2000

A little mindless (political?) entertainment: http://www.colonize.com/warp/index.html

.

-- Anonymous, November 11, 2000

This election being so close and all, I wonder how all the people who didn't vote feel now? No matter who you liked, it shows how "all" votes count. James

-- Anonymous, November 11, 2000