I Can't Say I Get This :-(

[Razors Edge ★]

...because I see no link between "willing to wait in line for a 1:310,000,000 chance at winning the lottery" and "able to choose good leaders for our town, county, state, and country."

Tom

[jsharr ★]

Maybe if they combined the two?

Scratch off ballots?

Lottery ticket dispensed when you turn in your ballot?

 

[late]

When I buy a lottery ticket, I am buying a fantasy. I've paid more for fantasies I didn't like nearly as much.

With elections, I think what we have now is a perfect example of what happens when you get complacent.

Try voting by mail, if everybody knew how cool it was, nobody would ever stand in line again. I google up the referendum questions, so I have at least a vague idea of what I'm talking about. That was always a weakness with me.

 

[donkpow]

True there is a disconnect. If you win the lottery, you could buy the government.

[Longjohn ★]

6 hours ago, late said:

nobody would ever stand in line again.

I can’t relate to standing in line to vote. When I walk in to vote they say: “hi John” then they turn to the other official and explain that this is the John that was born in 1949. Then I vote.

[late]

2 hours ago, Longjohn said:

I can’t relate to standing in line to vote. When I walk in to vote they say: “hi John” then they turn to the other official and explain that this is the John that was born in 1949. Then I vote.

Esp. in the South, they not only make minorities stand in line for hours, sometimes several hours, they sometimes make it so the polls close before everyone gets the chance to vote.

They have a ton of dirty tricks, and they use them.

[pedalphile]

9 hours ago, late said:

When I buy a lottery ticket, I am buying a fantasy. I've paid more for fantasies I didn't like nearly as much.

With elections, I think what we have now is a perfect example of what happens when you get complacent.

Try voting by mail, if everybody knew how cool it was, nobody would ever stand in line again. I google up the referendum questions, so I have at least a vague idea of what I'm talking about. That was always a weakness with me.

 

A vote for Postal voting here, too, Late, standing in line to cast your ballot is for fools these days.

[12string]

There's a whole lot of false relativism going on anymore.  People spread those memes around like they are true - or even make sense,  People don't even read them, they see a trigger word and get all "Oh yeeah, people need to see THIS!".  My Mom just did one of her Facebook binges, sharing a meme about will YOU keep Christ in Christmas - with a picture of a truck carrying a Christmas tree in the snow - but no Christ anywhere.  

I get the meaning of that one, however stretched and ill conceived.  Your chances of having your single vote decide an election which affects your life are FAR better than winning the lottery.  But that's too much to put in a meme.

[Razors Edge ★]

12 minutes ago, 12string said:

I get the meaning of that one, however stretched and ill conceived.  Your chances of having your single vote decide an election which affects your life are FAR better than winning the lottery.  But that's too much to put in a meme.

Most lotteries have "lesser" awards - from $2 up to maybe $1 million?  Not sure what the odds are for many of those things, but a $100 "win" would probably be more likely AND have a bigger impact on many people's lives than a race decided by a single vote where the voter would actually see any positive gain.

Tom

[2Far ★]

On 10/23/2018 at 9:14 PM, Razors Edge said:

...because I see no link between "willing to wait in line for a 1:310,000,000 chance at winning the lottery" and "able to choose good leaders for our town, county, state, and country."

Tom

Well, we don't vote to 11/06 and early voting isn't really convenient for me; and I didn't make a special trip to buy my ticket; and I didn't stand in line to do it.

On a related note, Wo2 didn't vote two years ago. When she complains about the current political climate I tell her she really doesn't have a dog in that fight. That's goes about as well as you would expect.

[Scrapr ★]

I voted yesterday. Mail in ballots. I think Oregon has done it for 20 years now. Very civilized. I did it at my desk. 

[Razors Edge ★]

1 minute ago, Scrapr said:

I voted yesterday. Mail in ballots. I think Oregon has done it for 20 years now. Very civilized. I did it at my desk. 

What are the stats for the change from the "old" way to the new way?  How does Oregon compare to Wash, CA, Idaho, Nevada in voter turnout?

Tom

[Scrapr ★]

Just now, Razors Edge said:

What are the stats for the change from the "old" way to the new way?  How does Oregon compare to Wash, CA, Idaho, Nevada in voter turnout?

Tom

No idea. Just know it's easy. I sort of miss going to the poll at the elementary school. The one drawback is voting then finding out in the last week before election day  that your your selection was found in bed with a goat in his 20's

[Razors Edge ★]

13 minutes ago, Scrapr said:

No idea. Just know it's easy. I sort of miss going to the poll at the elementary school. The one drawback is voting then finding out in the last week before election day  that your your selection was found in bed with a goat in his 20's

It looks like it is 7th overall (States + DC).

This overall graph looks like it could be interesting to watch next month:

Tom

[12string]

5 hours ago, Scrapr said:

No idea. Just know it's easy. I sort of miss going to the poll at the elementary school. The one drawback is voting then finding out in the last week before election day  that your your selection was found in bed with a goat in his 20's

this is the issue I have with early voting, it screws up the campaigns.  I'm not sure there's a better way to do mail ins, and not having mail in voting would disenfranchise millions

[Prophet Zacharia]

On 10/24/2018 at 2:34 PM, Razors Edge said:

Most lotteries have "lesser" awards - from $2 up to maybe $1 million?  Not sure what the odds are for many of those things, but a $100 "win" would probably be more likely AND have a bigger impact on many people's lives than a race decided by a single vote where the voter would actually see any positive gain.

Tom

You’re overthinking it. Not everyone recognizes that voting is more important, as a principle, than other things they do. This is just shaming them into remembering that perspective. That they will unlikely be the deciding vote in any race or that they could have won $2 from the lottery is a distraction from that basic civics message.

[Kzoo]

2 hours ago, Prophet Zacharia said:

You’re overthinking it. Not everyone recognizes that voting is more important, as a principle, than other things they do. This is just shaming them into remembering that perspective. That they will unlikely be the deciding vote in any race or that they could have won $2 from the lottery is a distraction from that basic civics message.

This

 

[Longjohn ★]

I hate these drives trying to get EVERYONE to vote. Everyone should not vote. There are thousands of people who don’t have the common sense of a potato. The voting would take a lot longer but they should make everyone write an essay on why they voted the way they did. If it didn’t make sense eject that vote and make the voter go stand in the corner.