Comments on: how to throw a ballot party (for American voters)

By: Lennon

Lennon — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 10:22:47 +0000

There’s a non-profit here in Oregon, the Bus Project (http://busproject.org/) that basically does this (and a bunch of related activism and volunteering) on an institutional scale. (We call it “Brew Ha-Ha”, and host ‘em monthly on single issues year-round.)

An example you might like: Trick or Vote. Get dressed up as usual on Halloween, and go knock on people’s doors; when they open the door, yell “Trick or Vote!”, and remind ‘em to vote. (It’s an organized, nationwide thing this year, too; check out http://trickorvote.org/ if you’re curious.)

So basically, yeah, I agree with the idea, but think it can work pretty much any time, not just around a big election day.

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:03:08 +0000

danah,

Perhaps your circle of friends and associates includes people who can be at least somewhat intellectually responsible when drunk. Based on the people I know, I suspect this is a minority situation. Possibly this might be class related – if most of your circle is middle class/college educated.

-Steve

By: Nickoli

Nickoli — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 12:06:04 +0000

That advice is not just useful for American voters: it sounds like a good idea here to, and probably anywhere where there are local elections. Where I live, the BNP – essentially a fascist party – do very well out votes cast in frustration by people who can’t tell the difference between all the other parties.

By: anonymouse

anonymouse — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 23:29:05 +0000

I totally agree with you here, local politics is some of the most important politics. Unfortunately for me, I spend three months out of the year in a different state, and even if I do register to vote where I live right now, I’ll be living in another state by the time the people I vote for actually take office. I guess what I’m saying is that it’s even harder to keep track of local politics when there’s more than one place you would consider local.