all right we need to discuss the voters
yes
on a national and a local level why do you think the apathy exists i blame it to apathy
i i
yeah um i i suspect the apathy is is due to something like people just feeling that that their vote doesn't count anyway i mean why why bother voting if
um if your vote won't make a difference so for instance in um the last presidential election i'm sure a lot of people thought oh Bush is going to win either way why bother voting
why should i go out of my way when it doesn't matter
that's right i think that's and and the other side of the coin is um people saying well if i really like the underdog candidate i still think they're not going to win so some are saying Dukakis is certainly not going to win why bother voting for him so
i think i i think that's a big uh a big a big reason for it how about
oh i think so too and i think the other thing is the news media media puts such a blitz on it that they've uh had it predetermined with a half of one percent voting you know
um that's true actually i never thought about that that that's a good reason
and i i think the you hear the news you know you start out in the morning and all day you hear the news and by time say you get off work and go to vote you feel like it doesn't make any difference
that's true that's true
due to the overabundance of news we have available to us
um-hum that
what do you think on the local elections though
i think on the local elections it's actually um i think um i think people vote in the larger elections because
they feel like well you know the country's real important and you know if i elect if we help elect a president who's going to save us then the then the whole country will be saved but they figure local elections don't mean that much i suspect so people don't really worry about their local mayor or something figuring that you know
um and i think wrongly figuring that that well what good is another mayor going to do anyway because our federal taxes are more important right now and you know and stuff like that so people think that that that they don't have
um that that it doesn't doesn't matter as much whereas i think it's probably just the opposite is true
i think it's probably the case that people could have more effect on a local level
oh i think so too absolutely uh i think another thing
and uh i'm making a judgment here that may or may i think it is totally wrong well
uh
i think that the people that are um have um a lower income which you automatically equate with lower education
right
tend not to be registered
and they don't register and they don't understand that you can't go and vote and register all at the same time or when it gets down to the point of someone saying are you going to vote today they say well i would
um
right but
and i believe in this but
yeah that that's possible i still think that that a lot of those people are the ones who really think that their votes don't make a difference though as well
i think it's those same people who don't know any better about how we vote are are are a lot of the people who think that well look at me i'm just a little nobody my vote's not going to count anyway
you know and i think that's probably a portion of the population that's massively under represented i i i would guess
that that that portion of the population is massively under represented and
i had an interesting comment one time a thought that would never have crossed my mind i had someone tell me that
i will never register to vote because i don't serve on a jury
hum what do they have to do with one another
that's i i i just i that i just wandered off from that one i was just so surprised and amazed with the statement that they say only registered voters can be picked for jury selection
oh so they didn't want to wind up being a juror ever
so they were if they don't vote they don't have to be on a jury
oh i didn't realize that actually that
there is convoluted logic for you
yeah there is there there there are much easier ways to get out of jury duty
yes
just go in and say oh i want to be a juror i can spot a guilty person a mile away
oh i just right right there are so many other ways but that one just it defeated me i didn't have any answer for that one that one was just beyond my imagination
well that that just seems to be a person who just doesn't care about much of anything around sort of you know doesn't doesn't sort of likes rights probably but doesn't like responsibilities responsibilities
no i think
that's a good point you're probably right
i mean that's that's what it what it boils down to is people like to say you know people say well i don't want to be on jury you know i don't want to serve on jury duty i don't want to vote i don't want to do this and that well then they could you know i
put them in the reverse situation in the place where they don't have the right to be on jury duty and and they don't have the right to vote i suspect their opinions would change very quickly
which
and that was what i was thinking exactly about because in the Soviet Union they had an election and they had what like a ninety eight percent turnout
yes
a massive turnout at last someone wants us to vote they were standing in lines to vote
yes they were they were doing that unfortunately what what they were they had they had no idea what they were voting on
it turns out
and their vote didn't count
that's right but but it's the thought they all got out but you wonder if you know if if now the next election they have if only half of them are actually going to show up or how many generations it will take until only half of the voters show up in Russia
or any one shows up
right that that's true
total indifference you know what difference does it make back gone the full circle
right
now if things go the way that that that they are there i think that they'll keep voting but i think they'll wind up like us at some point where people sort of
only half of them will end up voting and sort of caring enough to really make a statement so
you know i think i think that that the people who most need to vote sometimes are the are the ones who who are really out to make a statement because you know when when
when you've got an underdog candidate who represents something and even if he doesn't win a large number of people voting for that particular candidate does i think make a statement to everyone else
oh certainly there's a message there even if they lose
i think that
yeah i think and i i think that's real important
oh and i think women turn out to vote for women too
that's probably true
yeah yeah i think well i know it's true you see a lot of that you know rally behind the female she may lose but by golly we're going to make a statement here
yeah
hum that's good that's that's that's that's actually real good
you know
i said well well actually actually the the female who i would most rally behind right now right i don't know much about her politics that's about a way the way she makes speeches is a is a local person for you is Ann Richards
oh okay
i don't know her politics i just know that uh i saw her speak in the eighty four Democratic uh convention and right then and there if they said to me vote for someone for president i would have slapped down my vote for Ann Richards
was was that the time no that was later eighty four that's too soon she said something about uh
Ginger Rogers did did everything Fred
Astaire did and she did it backwards in high heels
that's very good
she said that i didn't said you know don't tell me what women can do
that that's that's that's very good that's i i like that so i would uh i would i would vote for her without and i i suspect she could get a large voter turnout
i think i did vote for her as a matter of fact i'm pretty sure i did
say i i i would think that um that that people like that i think inflammatory inflammatory politicians are um or or emotional politicians you know certain very vibrant politicians tend to bring crowds out i think
i would hope
well and some of the issues are so emotional
um-hum
you know some of the really the really emotional ones have you followed the Dallas elections on zoning
no oh i've heard of it but not necessarily i've heard it's very controversial though
i
everyone has made so many statements i don't live in Dallas county
um-hum
but
i've heard so many statements that i've lost track
hum
i honestly at this point
it's it's just too blown out of proportion for everyone you really even the news you cannot follow
yes
what the story the actual facts are at this point i don't i don't really know if some of the poor judges that are just trying to decide how it should be divided
um-hum
that's what
um-hum
i wonder about them at some point
hum hum hum well they're elected as well so
that's correct
so
and that's another and that's another interesting question should judges be elected or appointed
so they're going to be
but
that's that's true that's true well
are they politicians
well in some sense they they should be politicians in that you know you want them to respect the people and you don't want them to have you don't want a judge to be appointed because you don't want someone's friend to be a judge
sure
but on the other hand
or you want to take the other side of it you can argue that's one of those you can pick either side and we could spend a lot of time on it because
right
that's right
it's it's difficult
um-hum
it's situational really
so how do you think we can get people to vote
uh
uh
i've had one idea that i think is is is completely undoable but it but i think it but but i suspect it would work and the way to do it is to get an absolutely atrocious candidate who you never expect to win
to go out and make inflammatory and ridiculous and stupid statements so that a large population of of of voters will go out and vote against that person for someone else
so given a choice between you know so so if you have so if if imagine a world where you have two real candidates and one idiot who goes out and makes you know anti you know sort of um
oh
anti women statements anti Semitic statements anti black statements et cetera et cetera well then i suspect a lot of people would go out and choose a candidate to vote for just just to spite that person
but i suspect that that that would actually never work
hum
well this is true this is true i was worrying uh along the lines of you get everytime someone puts in a ballot in a ballot box
um-hum
a dollar bill comes out the bottom
that's an interesting notion
that might work in some places
that that that that that would be interesting yes i think that would work in some places yeah
