Study: Facebook Boosts Voter Turnout

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A new study claims that Facebook's "I Voted" button was responsible for 333,000 more voters turning out on election day. If you ask me, I think it is more likely that those 333k people just didn't want to look like non-voting bums to their Facebook friends, so they clicked the button. Peer pressure for FTW! :D

In 61-million-person experiment, researchers show online social networks influence political participation, with close relationships mattering most. About one third of a million more people showed up at the ballot box in the United States in 2010 because of a single Facebook message on Election Day, estimates a new study led by the University of California, San Diego.
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"get out and vote" isnt the message that we should be sending. its plain irresponsible to tell every single person to vote regardless of how much attention they pay to politics. the message we shold be promoting is "get informed".

in 2008, females would tell me that they wanted hillary clinton for president because she was a woman. or obama because hes black (and they were too). or john mccain because 'he looks like my grandfather'... these are invalid reasons for choosing the best leader for the country. unfortunately they are the only reasons most people have when they step into the election booth.

i dont care who you choose as long as you have a decent reason to back up that choice. if the only reason you have to cast a vote for a particular candidate is because you share some trivial trait in common, do the country a favor and stay home on election day. or better yet- do some research on your own.

we need to promote intelligence and common sense.
 
I dont vote because I think our country would run itself into the ground just the same even if our president was picked by lottery.
 
If you were not getting political spam on Facebook before, you surely will now.
 
ghost6303 said:
"get out and vote" isnt the message that we should be sending. its plain irresponsible to tell every single person to vote regardless of how much attention they pay to politics. the message we shold be promoting is "get informed".

in 2008, females would tell me that they wanted hillary clinton for president because she was a woman. or obama because hes black (and they were too). or john mccain because 'he looks like my grandfather'... these are invalid reasons for choosing the best leader for the country. unfortunately they are the only reasons most people have when they step into the election booth.

i dont care who you choose as long as you have a decent reason to back up that choice. if the only reason you have to cast a vote for a particular candidate is because you share some trivial trait in common, do the country a favor and stay home on election day. or better yet- do some research on your own.

we need to promote intelligence and common sense.
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You're definitely not kidding. I face all sorts of stupidity on Facebook for the past several months and I sincerely hope these people will forget about voting day.
 
Voting is a pointless endeavour that makes you feel like you're actually accomplishing something that matters, which isn't true. What I have observed though, is that voting is quite effective at making 49% of the population angry at the 51% who won.
 
PornoSatan said:
Voting is a pointless endeavour that makes you feel like you're actually accomplishing something that matters, which isn't true. What I have observed though, is that voting is quite effective at making 49% of the population angry at the 51% who won.
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You mean 5% angry at 6%? :D
 
bigpimpatl said:
I don't vote because statistically speaking one vote doesn't mean anything :D
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Not sure if :rolleyes:

Its not that one vote means nothing.. its that 100% of the "Popular" vote means nothing... Due to our system of electorals, a 100% popular vote one way *COULD* be 100% the other way.. Making my vote and all others, worthless..

We would be better off with a system voting where percentages of our tax dollars go vs a person that gets to build a team of assholes that does it for us..
 
Evil Juggalo said:
I dont vote because I think our country would run itself into the ground just the same even if our president was picked by lottery.
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Plus they spend billions yearly on it. If they didn't hold elections, and just took all the campaign donations and gave it to NASA, or an AI goverment program or something (and get rid of the corrupt morons who spend all their time, and other peoples money "debating" and getting nothing done), it would probably be much better. :D
 
ghost6303 said:
"get out and vote" isnt the message that we should be sending. its plain irresponsible to tell every single person to vote regardless of how much attention they pay to politics.
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THANK YOU! I get lambasted by people when I say that its far better for uninformed people to NOT vote since it dilutes the vote of those with a clue, and by voting uninformed they may in fact be casting a vote against their own best interests.

Personally, I'd prefer a basic knowledge + intelligence test as a prerequisite to voting. After casting your vote it will ask you to match a given policy with the official position of the candidate in a multiple choice format for example, and if you score too low your vote is cast out since you're a dumbass and don't even know what you're voting for (or worse, a "one issue" voter as is so common now... let the world burn in hellfire and pillars of the country crumble as long as abortion is made illegal).
 
DeathPrincess said:
Plus they spend billions yearly on it. If they didn't hold elections, and just took all the campaign donations and gave it to NASA, or an AI goverment program or something (and get rid of the corrupt morons who spend all their time, and other peoples money "debating" and getting nothing done), it would probably be much better. :D
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They spend donations. If there's no donations, then there's no spending.
 
I vote for the guy who wears the best ties while campaigning. And if they both look awful, I vote based on who's spouse looks nicer. And we should let the kids vote, and we need the people in prison to vote too.

Get out and vote everyone!
 
Depends where you vote. Being in a very blue state my vote wouldn't matter for anything since Obama is a shoe-in to win here.
 
PornoSatan said:
Voting is a pointless endeavour that makes you feel like you're actually accomplishing something that matters, which isn't true.
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I read an interesting article a while back that one of the reason that democracies are generally peaceful is that people are falsely lead to believe that they can channel their efforts towards change by voting and influencing the votes of others (protesting, campaigning, etc). And if they fail, all is not lost as they can vent verbally at the current administration and just wait for the clock to run out to renew their efforts.

So convincing everyone that voting is of paramount importance and "every vote counts" is really just getting people on the bandwagon to accept the legitimacy of the government, respect and obey it, and ensure they stay physically passive and not try to subvert, split off from, or violently oppose the establishment.
 
And of course the real irony is that in a two party system, more often than not your vote is pretty irrelevant if you don't like either candidate/party. Its like being given the choice between dating a fat girl with oily skin and herpes or a bipolar anorexic heroine addict with a bad case of halitosis, and then looking at you like you're not doing your civic duty if you don't pretend to be happy to pick one of the two.
 
Ducman69 said:
I read an interesting article a while back that one of the reason that democracies are generally peaceful is that people are falsely lead to believe that they can channel their efforts towards change by voting and influencing the votes of others (protesting, campaigning, etc). And if they fail, all is not lost as they can vent verbally at the current administration and just wait for the clock to run out to renew their efforts.

So convincing everyone that voting is of paramount importance and "every vote counts" is really just getting people on the bandwagon to accept the legitimacy of the government, respect and obey it, and ensure they stay physically passive and not try to subvert, split off from, or violently oppose the establishment.
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Sounds like the article was a really long way of saying what alot of people already believe - that the system is rigged and it doesn't matter who you vote for. :)
 
Ducman69 said:
I read an interesting article a while back that one of the reason that democracies are generally peaceful is that people are falsely lead to believe that they can channel their efforts towards change by voting and influencing the votes of others (protesting, campaigning, etc). And if they fail, all is not lost as they can vent verbally at the current administration and just wait for the clock to run out to renew their efforts.

So convincing everyone that voting is of paramount importance and "every vote counts" is really just getting people on the bandwagon to accept the legitimacy of the government, respect and obey it, and ensure they stay physically passive and not try to subvert, split off from, or violently oppose the establishment.
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This! Plus this once more! Having said that, I was sold the whole "change" thing and my first and last time voting was for Obama. However I would like to consider myself a quick learner and will no longer be voting unless they add a "neither" slot which with enough votes gets the two candidates running killed and two new candidates selected.

It just doesn't matter who's the manager (aka president) of this business...I mean country because the owners (corporations, lobbyists, and elite) will always have it their way. Nothing I say or do will change anything.
 
Ducman69 said:
I read an interesting article a while back that one of the reason that democracies are generally peaceful is that people are falsely lead to believe that they can channel their efforts towards change by voting and influencing the votes of others (protesting, campaigning, etc).
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Watchdog.net states they're limiting protesting now with bill HR 347.
Imagine an America in which the government can deny protest in any public space it deems fit. Where wearing a dissenting shirt around an elected official could be construed as a felony. Where First-Amendment protections become privileges subjectively doled out by the state. Sadly, that America is pretty much here.

In March, Congress passed HR 347, a bill that limits Americans' ability to protest in public and on government grounds. Mainstream media didn't raise peep, but now there's finally some anger building. The bill, passed almost unanimously, makes it a federal offense punishable by up to ten years in prison to "knowingly" protest in the vicinity of the Secret Service--that is anywhere the Secret Service "is or will be temporarily visiting."

It also makes many public events impervious to lawful protest. Any "National Security Special Event" (NSSE) requires Secret Service protection. NSSE-designated events have proliferated since 9/11 to include Super Bowls, concerts, campaign events, and now any public event that Very Important People want protest-free.
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http://act.watchdog.net/petitions/963?l=79459.P2f5aG

So maybe it won't be so peaceful....wait...it will because prisons will be jam packed and the 280+ and growing private prisons in the US will have record profits!
 
People are gonna either put someone or a buncha someones in power over them no matter whether its the current US government or any other form of leadership. If no, someone will take it. No matter how you look at it, someone is gonna be in charge of everyone else and they're going to do things that some people will sometimes find disagreeable. There's no reason to complain about it because, even after drastic change, you'll still end up back where you started, unhappy with the status quo and annoyed at the state of things. I think it's easier just to hug your pet kitty instead or worry more about comparing how awesome it is that you spent money on a random part for your computer that you think is special even though like ten other random guys you don't know in real life also have it and another ten of them think you just bought it to make your penis seem bigger.
 
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