Who honestly believes that their vote "didn't count"?

Question

I keep seeing "My vote didn't count" for tons of reasons...I live in Tennessee and am one of the few democrats in my state. I voted for Obama. You guys know Tennessee...Tennessee going blue? That would take a miracle. As expected, McCain won Tennessee this year.

But I will never say "My vote didn't count..." Because 2 miracles happened in the 90's as Tennessee went blue for Clinton both times. What if Tennesseans voting for Clinton those years had said "My vote won't count so I'm not even going to bother..." Of course, the state would have remained red.

So, do you believe that your vote didn't count? If so, may I ask WHY you feel this way?

Answer 1

Just me - isn't American democracy a beautiful thing? No matter who you are - rich, poor, privileged, homeless, etc....our votes are ALL equal! If you are a single mother of 4 on welfare, your single vote counts just as much as the CEO of some corporation. I think it's the ultimate leveling of the playing field. Our 1 vote counts the same. And you are so right! They ALL count equally! I believe that people complaining about their vote not counting is just as you said. Angry the election didn't go their way. It hasn't gone my way in the last 8 years, but I still voted and I knew it counted!

Answer 2

>>So, do you believe that your vote didn't count?



Yes.



>>If so, may I ask WHY you feel this way?



I live in an overwhelmingly "blue" state. Since Coolidge, the ONLY time the Republicans won the electoral votes for my state was for Reagan and Eisenhower. So there was no doubt that Obama was going to get all of the electoral votes (and people DO know that presidents are determined by the majority of electoral votes, not popular votes, right?).



Even if by some AMAZING miracle, hundreds of thousands of citizens decided to vote Republican instead, AND that this was actually enough to tip my state to red and have those 12 votes go to McCain, it STILL wouldn't have mattered, because Obama would still have had more than enough electoral votes to win.



More importantly, I'm a registered Libertarian. That's the party that I agree with the most. So if I truly had a voice, I'd vote for a Libertarian candidate. But if you think a 3rd party has a shot in hell of getting ANY electoral votes, you must be dreaming.



>>My thoughts are that most of those who say their vote

>>didn't count are saying this because their candidate didn't

>>win...



It amuses me how many people keep making that unfounded assumption. Once again, even if I WANTED Obama (and I still haven't said anything about him either way) my vote still would not have made a lick of difference.

Answer 3

My vote can only influence because in the end, it is the Electoral College vote that decides an election.



NO. I actually could not, and did not, vote for either candidate.



Not make sense? I could not vote for either candidate based on their policies, so I did not vote for either candidate based on their policies. From all the comments you seem to be a little bit oversensitive. I am 50 years old and have been voting since I was 18. I KNOW how the electoral college works, all I meant was that they are not required to vote anyway in particular (even though they are supposed to vote according to the popular vote), there is nothing that makes them do so. In the end it is the Electoral Vote that decides the election. I didn't make the law, and I never said my vote didn't count. Stop trying to make yourself look good by making others look bad.

Answer 4

I live in CA & easily could have said that my vote didn't count, since it was a foregone conclusion that CA would go blue all the way, like myself. However, if all Dems in CA felt that way, CA would've gone RED! So I never feel that my vote is worthless -- it's a real power trip to punch that ballot, and I take personal responsibility for the results. As should ALL Americans!

Answer 5

I've felt that way before. I live in Virginia and we're normally a red state. This is the first time I've felt that my vote counted.

Answer 6

Well of course i know nothing of your state, but i can read, and for ''u''

to say ''u'' were one of the few that voted for ''OBAMA'' from your state

i question your honesty...............your question should be removed because its untrue, i have family in TN. poor things are Democrats as well, so the 6 of them and little ole you..total ''DEM'' vote 7

get a life.....................your vote will be the destruction of this

Country as we now know it, its still safe its not JAN 20TH ''YET''

Answer 7

You wasted it on Obama! Now you'll get what you ask for, prepare yourself, for economic backlash.

Answer 8

Yes my vote counted. Unfortunately unlike those Chicago folks, it didn't count more than once.