Negative Votes.

It’s that time of the year again when political rhetoric takes to the airwaves in an effort to convince us that candidate A is better than candidate B. (As if the airwaves aren’t filled with political rhetoric any other time of the year.) I saw an anti-Kerry ad today. I was reminded of that Saturday Night Live skit where they were parodying political ads. “John Q is a cold-blooded killer!” “Jerry commited the Texas Chainsaw Massacre!” And the like. When the commercial pointed out that Kerry wants to, oh no, raise taxes, I said rather loudly, “Fuck the tax cuts.” I’m waiting for the day somebody in the dining hall tells me to shut (the fuck) up. I’m rather obnoxious at times.

Every candidate (or rather, the top two we know of) is trying to get your vote. Now and then, you’ll hear the rhetoric, “Your vote matters!” I’d swear I remember the Bush camp saying something about how the 2000 election showed how YOUR VOTE MATTERS. My brain froze for a moment, because that completely contradicted the whole “Electoral college what?” confusion.

At some point or another, I’ve thought about just how much my vote matters. I quickly felt like the many disillusioned among us who say “My vote, in fact, does not matter.” One vote. We understand that elections are won by a margin of many, not one. If we look at the statistics, my decision to vote in the upcoming election probably won’t critically sway the outcome. One vote. Of course, this is why we have political parties to organize masses so they will vote as one, thus giving the collective parties more voting power.

They say voting gives us a voice. If a vote is a voice, what exactly are we saying? Maybe a voter for Bush doesn’t like his foreign policy, but likes his money-pandering domestic policies. Maybe a voter for Bush thinks he’s cute, and doesn’t know anything else. We’ll never really know. In the 2000 election, a critical number voted for Ralph Nader. We understand that a Nader vote, while it was a Pro-Nader vote, but was also an anti-Bush vote. Also, we understand that a Pro-Gore vote was also a anti-Bush vote. We understand that there were more people that didn’t want Bush than wanted him. But, if we look at the naked statistics (at least, for the electoral college), more people wanted Bush.

I don’t know of any electoral system that has negative votes, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. If John Kerry gets any votes in the next election, it will not be because people like him or want him to be president. It will be because we do not want Bush. I don’t like Kerry. Something about him irks me; people tend to make snap judgements about candidates and later back them up with trivial rhetoric, I am no different. But there are more people that dislike Bush than dislike Kerry. Imagine if there was a negative vote. I could negative vote Bush, then toss my positive vote to whoever I want, without fear of my anti-Bush “voice” being lost.

I can imagine the hilarious results from this. There are enough anti-Bush votes that he’d have a negative score. There would be enough anti-Kerry votes from the Republcan camp that he’ have a negative score. Who’d win? *smirks* Unchecked, Nader could win. I realize how chaotic this is, but I like of like a little chaos now and then. Far better than the Candidate A and Candidate B system we have.

Of course, there’s another “solution” that would definitely appeal to those disenfranchised by the whole thing. Personally, I think those that think “not voting is my voice” are full of shit. You’ve effectively taken ourself out of the process, and so politicians will not try to win your vote. You are irrelevant. Just for those of the none-of-the-above persuasion, we should add that option to your elections, just like (former Soviet) Russia has. Most of America doesn’t vote. If they could just show up and say “Eh, you all suck”, that single message would be louder than all the partisan rhetoric around us.

So eh. The whole negative vote idea is just something I have floating around in my mind. Obviously all of our opinions can not be expressed in corresponding positive and negative votes, let alone one. We all have varying opinions, even if we’re not political. But if we get too complicated with multi-votes (like, say, ranking five people for president, and five people you don’t want to see.), well, then understanding the results would be out of reach of the common man. Plus, if it’s too complex, doing those 3rd grade mock elections would be confusing as hell.

Though. Given how few people people show up on the ballot, it is possible to rank all the people. But again, tallying everything would be a mathematical nightmare.

I haven’t decided where to throw my vote next November. I don’t want to see another torturous four years of Bush. I miss Bill Clinton. I missed a President who, for the most part, kept his nose out of our lives. And, for the most part, made us feel like the world was at peace. I don’t want four years of WARWARWAR. I want four years of me forgetting the government exists. But. I really wonder what John Kerry can do to undo the damage done. Will he strengthen the environmental laws that Bush weakened (in his first 100 days, no less)? Will the PATRIOT Act go away? I’d love to see Kerry pull the trump of pointing out the suicide rate of US soldiers in Iraq. But, I don’t know. If I feel like it doesn’t matter either way, I may just say “Fuck it” and vote Socialist. My vote doesn’t do much, anyway.