Papa_Tiger wrote:MrMcCullster wrote:I'm not really into politics at all, so I have never voted.
I had a very smart English teacher back in high school explain it like this: "I've studied all of the props, the candidates, and their stances from the different local judges, treasurers, and political individuals running for office in the election. I am a political junkie. I enjoy politics and I vote whenever I can. But come voting time, my highly intelligent, knowledgeable vote will be cancelled out by a teenager who just turned 18 and is voting for the first time and has no idea about any of it."
I don't want to cancel out a vote of someone who legitimately cares about politics.
And yes, I've already heard the "Well don't complain....." speech.
If you don't want to "cancel out a vote of someone who legitimately cares about politics" take just a little bit of time to become educated. There are lots of simple to read/understand voters guides that give the positions of the candidates and can help you make informed choices. Additionally, finding groups with similar views to your own that endorse candidates is another fast and simple way to become at least somewhat informed.
Sample ballots can be found in for your county precinct online (at least they can for my precinct), so knowing exactly what the ballot looks like is very easy and helps narrow down the field of candidates that you have to consider. It rarely takes me more than 30 minutes to do the research I need to do to be somewhat informed prior to election day. 30 minutes should never too much time to invest in the direction of your country, state, county and city.
Plus, if you do not know anything about some of the local elections, you can leave those blank or any of the choices you do not know about. If somebody is running unopposed, I always leave those blank and in local primary elections, if I know nothing about either candidate, same thing, just leave blank.