Vote, Vote, Vote
It’s November 7th, Election Day here in the U.S.
So, after you’ve showered, had your morning coffee, kissed the kids (if you’re got kids) and stroked your dog or cat goodbye (if you’ve got them), hurried to work to make sure there are no emergencies, real or imaginary… go vote.
Regardless of where on the political spectrum you fall, this year your vote is particularly important. So go do it. Thanks.
Oh, and if you’re thinking about taking photos (or video) at the polls, as Josh Hallett is doing for the AIGA Polling Place Photo Project, you may want to first read this post on state laws regulating polling place photography.
The USA is, in this respect, also the land of the free: you’re free to go vote if you want to, and not go if you do not want to. In Belgium, you’re obliged to go vote. I am still wondering which is the better system. In a system where you are free to go or not, a lot of people who are (for whatever reason) fed up with politics will probably not take the time to go out and vote for extremist parties just to show their dislike, frustration, anti-social stance,… making those parties bigger than they probably deserve to be. On the other hand: what to think of politicians who are elected by only a small part of the people they are supposed to represent? Of course: canvassing is a way to get people to go out and vote, but do they then vote for the right reasons? And also: do they in a system with compulsory voting? Food for thought, I guess… Anyway: have a nice election day! May the right (wo)man in the right place win. Or is that a naive thought?