The Current Events Thread

[Exeres]

BARACK "HE'S SANE" OBAMA!!!!!

That joke took me longer than it should have.

[SaintCrazy]

I really want to attach a sitcom laugh track to the debate.

[Syobon]

Belgium is apparently one of the few countries with vote duty. Thought that law would be more widespread.

[Tetrunes]

Vote...duty?

In American Government I learned there's like a 97% voter turnout rate there, and that the U.S. has somewhere along the lines of 42%

[Syobon]

You have to go vote here if you're elegible or you get a fine. Of course, nothing stops you from voting blank.

[Tetrunes]

That seems a bit extreme, if you have an excuse, would you still get the fine?

[Syobon]

If it's a good one, like you're in the hospital or incredibly sick, and you would need a doctors' note.

e: The fine is less than 50 euros btw.

[Tetrunes]

Oh, cool, thanks.

[Lambeth]

If it's a good one, like you're in the hospital or incredibly sick, and you would need a doctors' note.

e: The fine is less than 50 euros btw.

Can you early vote or something like you can in the states?

[Syobon]

I don't think so but you can have someone vote for you if you if you have a proper reason. In fact I think you have to if you can't make it.

[Madican]

So apparently that flyer in the Funny Pictures thread of Republicans bashing a Senatorial candidate for playing World of Warcraft is real.

Really? This is the kind of thing politicians need to stoop to? No fun allowed apparently.

[Exeres]

Okay the WoW thing isn't a problem, but if those quotes are actually from her, I'd also be kind of iffy about letting her represent me.

[BurntToShreds]

Vote Duty is a very bad idea, in my opinion. Even if you can submit a blank ballot, you could still possibly have a large amount of people who don't know anything about the candidates just casting their vote so they don't get fined. The chances of this happening are even worse in Australia, which has roughly twice the population of Belgium and has mandatory voting as well.

[Syobon]

It doesn't matter if they're educated or not, their votes matter. And most people at least try to keep up a bit with politics if they know they have to vote.

[BurntToShreds]

How does an uneducated person's vote actually matter if they don't know what the person they're voting for is supporting? What's the difference between allowing people to submit a blank ballot and just making voting voluntary? It's like, "I don't like either candidates, why is the government wasting my time by forcing me to come here and turn in a blank?"