I'm an American, and the election this month is almost all you hear about. But mainly only about the presidential race. I overheard a coworker ask another coworker how she voted in the other races (Senators, Reps, Justices, etc). She replied that she went down the ballot and voted for everyone in her political party and if there were two options she picked the woman.
I couldn't even keep on my game face. Shocked, I stared at her.
They laughed at me and then the girl asked how I voted. I said I researched them all and voted for people I believed were the better candidates. "You research ALL of them?" they asked incredulously.
Yes, I do. Always have.
lol I had this vague awareness that people voted like she does, but I'd never heard someone (an intelligent person) come out and just say it shamelessly. At least she's honest, I guess.
How do you vote?
I always vote within my party. However I have been known to go independent a time or two. Mostly I try to stay within the most military friendly with the presidential, house and senate. Local judiciary and state I research the hell out of them to decide which I will vote for.
I trend toward one party, but have voted for the other more than a few times. I will very occasionally go third party.
Actually, my favorite part is all the propositions and amendments - we always have quite a few, and I study them in detail.
I am only lazy about judges - I will look around on the internet a little bit, but have never found a reason to not vote for one, so I always go for retaining them.
I generally vote for Democrats, but there are exceptions. I am active enough in county politics that I am pretty familiar even with the judicial candidates. I do wish that judges would be appointed and not elected. I do tend to pick the female candidate when there is a close race and she seems reasonable. I think women have a different leadership style and we as a society need more of that.
Voting is a bit different in Canada. You vote for the local rep in the House of Commons (Member of Parliament). Whichever party gets the most seats in the House then gets to form the government with their leader becoming Prime Minister. There is no separate vote for the PM and our Senate is unelected. So, you can either:
Vote the local candidate (and I have done so on occasion when there was a strong candidate who wasn't from my usual party)
Vote the party (more common these days I think, and certainly how I tend to vote when I don't really know much about the local candidates)
People often vote based on the leader but because you don't directly vote for PM, this ends up being the same as voting for the party. This can be a bit of a mistake in our system since the PM is really just a leader chosen by the party and can actually be changed mid-term by the party without going to an actual election (cf. the recent change in 10 Downing Street from Cameron to May in the UK, which uses basically the same system).
One by-product of this system is that we have viable third and even, at times, fourth parties. I've been voting Green in the last decade or so (who are just barely viable in that they have had one or two seats in the House) but have also voted Reform (which is now part of the Conservative Party), Liberal and NDP. I tend to actually read the platforms and then vote based on which one seems to align at least somewhat with my positions. Local candidates are a factor, too. The one time I voted Reform was because the Liberal incumbent had resigned over a broken promise, then turned around and run to replace herself, which kind of ticked me off.
everytime there is an election! By ballot
It will be a long COLD day in HELL before I ever vote for another Republican ... since GHWB, I've seen their true, base colors (especially so with GWB) ... GREEDY bunch and the poor and middle class pays???
Now I'll defend to the end for the right to vote in free / open elections.
We've had simple to use electronic voting machines since early 90's.
I've been an Independent since I first registered to vote, but in my twenties, I worked for the Ohio Democratic Party to get Obama elected and get all the corrupt Ohio Republicans out of state office, but now they're back and have taken over the state with a vengeance. Since the Republican Party is a monolithic edifice that is against everything I believe in, I'll never vote for one. I always vote for the most progressive, honest candidate on the ballot who best reflects my position on the issues.
i have always voted for one party as far as the presidential election is concerned. however, in state and local elections, i'll glady cross the aisle if the candidate has a platform i stand for and actually serves their constituents.
With an X next to whichever party I hope will win or do the best for the People.
I would never vote Republican, but I do research the amendments, judges, etc... Took 8 hours of research !!! For all female voters, if you haven't read up on Mike Pence and his record... Please read... That man is scarier than Trump.
I like candidates who support Labor issues and working class men and woman.
Where I live we vote on a computer on a stand. I did early voting. I was shocked at how many people were there to vote. There was a lot of security and volunteer workers. Quite frankly, the county marshals and volunteer staff represented just about all of the local ethnic groups. I liked that. Everyone was very nice and it went very smooth. On my ballot, was the voting section for US President, US Congressional Representative, US Senator, State Senator, several judges, state utility board, city and county officials, local school board representatives, and several amendments nominated for the state constitution.
The computer brings up all of your votes for you to check over before you finalize it.
I nearly always vote NO to amendments as those are usually proposed by politicians hoping to create more government boondoggle and another wasteful inefficient agency. This year we had an amendment proposed by political friends of removed corrupt judges that hoped to do away with the agency that keeps them in line. Fuck that shit!
I have never voted a straight party ticket. My ballot always has votes for some Democrats, some Republicans and sometimes some Libertarians. I vote for the candidate that I feel is most qualified and least corrupt.
I'd love to vote naked if they would let me.
I put my cross in the box against the candidate of the - Labour Party (even though they've lost the plot temporarily)
Do you all research or know who you're voting for or just see your party name and vote that way?
Often and in numerous precincts. I am a democrat!!
As has been the case in every single presidential election I once again voted for a very minority candidate
I had thought to answer as above, but after reading some of these answers I decided to join in. I'm a staunch Democrat, but in minor situations, like city council, I might cross over if I know the Democrat isn't a good candidate, or that the Republican is much better. I do investigate if I can easily do so. I always investigate amendments and proposed laws. For things like judges I usually follow my newspaper's advice. I, of course, like my newspaper.
And to misquote Stormdog, as to his opinion of Clinton, even assholes have opinions.
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