Election Day 2014

I'll start this by saying that I'm not american and that I don't know how specifits work there... hell not even here, but I've always been curious about this thing my grandpa and I read when I was still in school.

It was an article, right before presidential elections here in Colombia, and it talked about blank/protest vote, what it's supposed to mean and how we don't use it despite knowing and constantly complaining about how shi'ty our politicians are. It's always one candidate vs another candidate, even if we have more than just 2 parties, in the end the focus goes to just 2 of them. But it doesn't matter, everyone is pure shi't. Always. We could have 100 candidates and they would all suck. All of them. So why vote for one of them? Why go for "I'm voting for the lesser shi't" or similar? In the end, you're being just as useless as them. The article ended by saying that if the majority was blank votes, despite having a shi't elected, it would send a message, unlike not voting.

Now, I'm not really invested in american politics, I only have so much patience to deal with extra retardedness politicians pull in a different country but some posts here feel the same. It reminds me of that South Park episode where Stan is forced to either vote for one of two shi'ts or abstinence, and he's not even given the option of blank vote, is it just not a thing there? Or has it lost its meaning like it did here in Colombia? To me not voting can mean anything from too lazy, doesn't care, clueless, whatever while the other means that you're pointing out how dissatisfied you're with available candidates.

In the US it would either a) not be reported that there were a substantial amount of blank votes or b) produce no substantial change anyways. It might convey a message, but that probably wouldn't produce change anyways.

Wow, maryland is considered a dem state and republicans just blew right through

In the US it would either a) not be reported that there were a substantial amount of blank votes or b) produce no substantial change anyways. It might convey a message, but that probably wouldn't produce change anyways.

I don't know about the US, but around here blank votes don't get counted. They are just tossed away as invalid, same as if you tried to vote for both candidates, for example.
I suppose the news media would make some noise if it looks like there is a very large discrepancy between voter turnout and the total number of valid votes, but not much would happen. The politicians know we despise them, one and all. As long as they get elected, that's all they care.

12% of the votes were from people 30 and younger. You people should be ashamed :|

12% of the votes were from people 30 and younger. You people should be ashamed :|

I heard only about 1/3 of the US population showed up to vote. I think that speaks louder than anything; people hate politicians so much that they would rather stay home than vote for their own party, they hate them so much that it has gotten to the point that liberal and conservative politicians register the exact same to them regardless of their own political views.

Another thing is that only 15 (or 17 as of now?) states still have Democrat governors, which is where they thought they would hold the most ground. No matter which side you are for (if any), it's clear that Dems got trounced pretty badly.

I heard only about 1/3 of the US population showed up to vote. I think that speaks louder than anything; people hate politicians so much that they would rather stay home than vote for their own party, they hate them so much that it has gotten to the point that liberal and conservative politicians register the exact same to them regardless of their own political views.

Another thing is that only 15 (or 17 as of now?) states still have Democrat governors, which is where they thought they would hold the most ground. No matter which side you are for (if any), it's clear that Dems got trounced pretty badly.

Not really. Voter turn-out in the US has always been pretty low. I mean, following 1900 we've never returned to levels prior. Watergate had an impact on voter turnout, but even then it was still pretty low.

Also there are almost always fewer Democratic governors than Republican governors due to the nature of the Democratic Party base (mostly urban-dwellers, New England, and the Pacific Northwest).