So I did vote yesterday. After I checked in, they handed me a democratic ballot. I believe I overhead them joking about not even asking people which ballot anymore. It’s understandable I suppose, everyone wants to vote and give their opinion in “the big race”. (Up until a couple of days ago, I was under the understanding that you could only vote for the party that you’re registered as, but it turns out that our primaries are open, meaning you can choose which party’s primaries you vote in.) I voted for Ron Paul as I had planned to do. He was very much on the ballot as I thought, and in contrast to what the Obama campaigner had tried to tell me.
Interestingly, Huckabee and Romney were also on the ballot, though they have dropped out of the race. I was thinking about that and what I had said. I thought, “It seems kind of dumb to vote for someone who has dropped out of the race.” But then I thought, “Well, I supposed in a way that’s not too much different than voting for someone who can’t win.” The point in doing so seems to be similar to people who voted in the Democratic primary: everyone wants to have their voice and opinion heard. Unfortunately, it seems that few people pay attention (or at least the media doesn’t) if you’re not on top. For example, 23% of people who voted in the Republican primary voted for a candidate other than McCain, even though none of them can win. That’s a pretty significant percentage, and represents approximately 92,000 people (information taken from CNN.com), which is again, quite a few people. Again, I find it interesting that this is essentially completely ignored from what I can tell.
Once I found out that Clinton was winning/had beaten Obama, I did wonder if I should have “made my vote count” (*roll eyes*) and voted in the democratic primary so that I could vote for Obama (I would much prefer him to Clinton I believe). It’s interesting to me to note that Obama seems to have been quite favored in urban areas, which are typically strongly democratic, while Clinton won in most of the more rural areas. It makes me wonder if some republicans voted in the democratic primary for Clinton, because they believe she would be easier for McCain to beat, or if people didn’t want to vote for Obama because of his race.
