The election

[warch]

Not voting is as much of a form of protest as voting. I live in California, where our major ticket was the governor's seat, and both parties gave us crappy candidates. People should not be required to vote in situations like that - or ever, really. Fitting the polling place into a busy schedule can be rather difficult.

BAH! Voting should be voluntary, but it should be a priority. Voting is a form of action. (Griff will say force!) Not voting can hardly be justified as protest: that inaction is meaningless and a non comment. Sounds like cynical, justified lazy to me- or perhaps it truly is that no issues are alarming enough to merit your attention. If you cant find a candidate, write one in or write your disgust on the ballot- thats a protest action. Better yet, get involved in primaries and use your vote to protest before as candidates are selected. Of course it takes some effort.

As for fitting voting into your schedule...I'd like to see a national day off, and service workers should be scheduled and allowed time off for voting duty just as in the case of jury duty. Most every work place I've been associated with, public and private, (in PA, TX, and MN) has allowed and promoted time to vote.