Appathy or Holidays?
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by HeadmistressTalia
I was very disappointed by the results in the Montana Congressional elections. Not that I lost, but rather by the number of votes total.
Looking at today's rankings, there are 17 ecitizens in Montana eligible to vote. However only 7 people voted. Less than 50% of the voting citizens chose to take advantage of their right.
Which leads me to ask:
Why?
There are two possible answers: apathy, or the influence of the holiday. I'm hoping it's due to Christmas. People join eRepublik to participate, and by the time you reach level 6, I would hope that people are invested enough to vote. Also add in that you actually get experience points when you vote, there is an actual incentive to vote.
So please remember this - we have 3 elections coming up in the next 30 days - the Presidential, Party, and another round of Congressional. Please, show me that December's low turn out was due to Christmas, not to lack of interest in how your country is run.
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I worry about this as well.
There are several reasons
1. about 50% of people who are eligible to vote are either inactive or do not pay enough attention to the game
2. Christmas
3. Most congressmen vote the same way so really it does not make that big of a difference to the citizen of each state who wins. Its fun for the people running and the party presidents but really the Party president elections and Presidential elections play a much bigger part in how the country is ran.
Then what can WE do to make running the country more interesting so that people will vote? Why should we be satisfied by 50% turnout? It strikes me that we need to interest people in the running of their country.
vote or die muther ******
Georgia had only 33% turnout. Kenneth Sutton won by 3 votes. Another congressman that believes in gov't intervention. Like there aren't enough of those.
But is education the cure? It hasn't worked in the real world, why do we expect it to work here? The real question is how do we motivate people? Apparently getting experience points isn't enough. Do we need to incentivy voting?
I wanted to vote, but couldn't. Very Annoying that i am too low a level.
You're close! Keep working and you'll be able to vote in the next election cycle.
Something has to be done by the admins but definitely not incentives. Voting should matter more. You should feel like you are making an important decision that's going to change the course of the country. That's not the case with Congress for 27% of people who didn't vote in Georgia(assuming 50% were inactive).
I have to agree - if people are voting only because they're being rewarded they're less likely to do any real research into the candidates. So how do we (or the admins) get people more interested in the functioning of the government?
I wish I knew.
In my article I suggested that we allow new citizens to enter political parties, instead of forcing them to wait until they reach level 7. Entering a political party can allow new citizens to develop an interest in politics, encouraging them to take an active role, especially when it comes to voting.
Read my article and tell me what you think:
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/my-newest-political-policy-714305/1
I think you're onto something. People should be able to join parties earlier.
Agreed. We need to be far more active in either engaging the qualified or increasing the levels of the unqualified. Voted.