Have you changed your vote?
 

As far as I can tell, there are an enormous number of people -in pretty much every country- who decide that their loyalty belongs to one partiicular party and they vote that way from the get=go until death. And they just don't bother with the actual ins and outs of politics, it's a done deal.

That means that the real outcome relies on the voters who actually listen to the speaches and read the flyers etc.... and are prepared to change their mind

and in my experience, these are the same people who like to debate politics on the internet. But the people I have debated politics with always claim to never have been persuaded to shange their vote. yet some must

so be honest (it's a strength not a weakness to see and admit the error of your ways...), have you changed your vote (party-wise) since you first started voting?

The independents have much power.

Certainly. I tend slightly to the right on money issues and slightly to the left on social issues. Who I end up voting for depends on who the parties put up for election and what the current major issues are.

When I was young, I was indoctrinated into the idea that Republicans are just evil.

Then, I heard that a bunch of people thought the same thing about Democrats, and had equally convincing reasons.

And eventually I became convinced. That BOTH of them were right.

So, yes, I've changed how I vote. I changed from believing the bullshit that 50% of people believe, to not believing 100% of the bullshit that anybody believes.

I do not vote Republican OR Democrat anymore. The two-party system is broken.

Both parties are running on "change" in this election. Do you really think you'll get "change" by ping-ponging back and forth between two fixed positions that are gridlocked?

I don't vote party lines. I'm an independent. I vote for R's or D's as I feel appropriate in important races, I vote for third parties in all other races. yeah, kind of disjointed but it's a start.

I'm a swing voter in a swing state - I'm the most powerful person in the country.

Ahhh, preferential voting.

I'm not happy that it is compulsory to exhaust my preferences. But it's better than an all-or-nothing, waste-my-vote one shot system.

I'm not loyal to the democratic party; i'm loyal to progressive social and economic principles.

I've always been on the left. Initially because the answers the right offered seemed cold and lacking in compassion. Then I discovered marxism and took on an ideological form of politics.

My movement has been from the far-left, fringe, revolutionary side of politics towards mainstream parliamentary politics. I have very much changed my views as I have learned more about the world and heard different views expressed. In some things my views have remained as they've ever been, in other things my views have undergone a paradigm shift.

I don't think my views have really been altered at any point by a single speech or debate...but such debates have at times laid the groundwork for a change in view.

That said, I have never voted for any other party than the Labour Party, except in cases of a strategic vote.

Do you have preferential voting over there Dana?

On Euro elections we have proportional representation. In Parliamentary and Council elections it's first past the post.

That's a different question I think.

Lets check we're on the same wavelength here.

First past the post means each electorate returns one member, being whoever got the most votes in that electorate.
Proportional representation means each (larger) electorate returns several members, being the several most-voted-for. Hence one could come third or so and still get a seat.

Preferential voting is where the elector marks all the boxes on the ballot paper with numbers beginning from one up to the end, and their vote is first given to the "1" candidate, but if in the first round of counting there is no candidate with more than 50% of the votes, the candidates with the fewest votes are eliminated and their votes are transferred to the "2" candidate, and the process repeats until someone gets over 50%.

Is this how you understand the terms?

It is possible to have combinations of both systems.
Down Under, we have preferential first-past-the-post for the lower house, and preferential proportional representation for the upper house (which is a little more complicated but I won't go into it).

Hey I need to change my vote! In THIS poll :lol:

I thought it was about, have you changed your vote in the US elections, and so I voted that I'm not allowed to vote (pretty silly in retrospect!).

Ahem.

Yes, I have changed my vote. I've swung between Labour, Greens, and Australian Democrats (now defunct centre-left social reformists).

That about sums it up for me.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. :D