Here's a video to keep you happy as you hold your nose and go to the polls (in Canada). There's a metaphor in it somewhere but I can't for the life of me figure it out. Maybe it has something to do with where my vote is going?
[Hat Tip: psa at Canadian Cynic. Jennifer Smith at Runesmith's Canadian Content had the same idea I had about linking the video to voting day.]
3 comments :
Canadians (and other nationalities?) have an interesting voting option to express their universal displeasure with all the candidates. You can "decline your ballot". You go to the polling place, get your ballot, and hand it back to the electioneer unmarked saying something along the lines of, "I decline my ballot." Declined ballots are tallied as declined, and generally listed in the local newspapers under election results. Declining your ballot is a statement that you care enough to get out and vote, but that none of the candidates have earned your support. This is another way to make a statement in ridings where the outcome is a forgone conclusion, and "strategic voting" just doesn't do it for you.
This is not correct.
See http://www.elections.ca/content.asp?section=gen&document=rec_part1&dir=rep/r37&lang=e&textonly=false
1.2.2 Option to Decline Ballot
There is a growing perception among some of Canada�s electorate that there should be a way in which an elector can register his or her dissatisfaction with the political process by declining his or her ballot. The Canada Elections Act currently does not provide any authority for that to be done.
Interesting. It goes on to say:
In order to remain vital and meaningful, the vote must remain responsive to the needs of all Canadians. The time may have come to allow an elector a formal means of expressing dissatisfaction with the political system in a manner that is not only peaceful, but is meaningful as well. Such a change at the federal level would mirror similar innovations that have taken place in a number of provinces: Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and the Yukon – all of which have provisions in their electoral statutes for ballots to be declined and of which Manitoba’s may serve as a model.
Recommendation: The Canada Elections Act should be amended to provide for the means for a ballot to be declined, recorded and reported as such in the official ballot results and which respects the principle of the secrecy of the vote.
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