BA>A similar situation exists down here in the US, depending on which poll
  >one believes either half or 2/3 of the eligible voters don't bother.  One way
  >to fix that would be to either add a "none of these candidates"
  >option or a "yes/no" option for each candidate.  That way voters
  >could vote *against* candidates, under the current system (here) the only
  >way to do that is to vote *for* his/her opponent - and if the opponent is
  >also unacceptable there's no third option.  But the professional politicians
  >and bureaucrooks don't *want* that to happen, so it won't.

But, as always, a non-vote doesn't really accomplish anything.
Okay.. Perhaps given the yes/no option a huge negative response
to a candidate in one riding might convince the party to replace
that person.

Huge percentages not bothering to vote at all sends the same
message as 'None of the above'and saves a drive in to the
polling station. Most parties have a locked in percentage
that will almost always vote for them so it's the 'undecided'
votes they are really chasing and could win or lose an election
for them. Not showing up to vote leaves that person still listed
as undecided (or apathetic) and doesn't benefit anyone running
yet still sends a message that they aren't offering these people
anything they'd consider going out of their way to vote for...

Sitting up here in Canada 'once removed' from the USA, I have
to wonder a bit about what will go on down there in your next
election.  I haven't looked too closely at it in a while but
earlier impressions were that most people were just about ready
to start voting Democrat again after the 'Bush junior' years..
So with a possibility of a potential easy win, what do the
Democrats do ?  Bring forth a woman and a minority as the main
candidates, as near as I can tell.

I'd like to think something like that wouldn't bother me, and
I'd also expect the Northern states plus California to be a
little more elightened and liberal towards such things. But I
have a feeling the rest of the country may not be quite ready
for that big a change in the status quo considering you've
never even had a VISE President who wasn't a white male yet
if memory serves..

Not that we're much different..  We did have a (non-elected)
woman Prime Minister here very briefly but I try not to blame
that disaster directly on her or her gender..

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 * SLMR Rob  * Fatal error... Remove dead user and press any key *
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