Word: voter
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Although every voter and computer will place a different emphasis on strength of schedule, the combined opinions of each should, in theory, produce rankings which give the optimal weight to strength of schedule. The problem, however, is that by using strength of schedule as an additional factor in the rankings, it is given far more weight than the average desired weight of computers and voters, and possibly far more weight than any single computer or living human being would ever want...
Between municipal, state and federal elections and their primaries, American voters go to the polls at least once a year--this year Massachusetts residents will vote three times. With all this time spent voting, American voter turnout is abysmal. And while everyone has been trumpeting ideas to help bring disaffected voters back to into the booths--especially the young who, according to a recent IOP survey, distrust politics and politicians in record numbers--no one has suggested that people might simply be tired of politics. Politics as campaigning, that...
People would vote more if they were made to vote less. In countries where voting happens only once every few years voter turnout is far more impressive than our dismal returns. In Britain, where voters face major elections only once every five or six years and have no primaries, turnout in the 1997 general election was a whopping 71.5 percent, according to The Guardian...
Primaries result in voter apathy because they inflate the already excessive time spent on the incredibly unproductive business of campaigning. Campaigning not only wastes politicians' time, but, because of its attack ads, its mud-slinging and its inflated promises, campaigning destroys voter trust. An extended campaign season leaves political reporters with little to write about except the occasional missteps of candidates on the trail and juicy gossip, none of which is really relevant to the issues of governance. The skeleton generally rises out of the closet in the beginning of a campaign--if you think back far enough the public...
Without primaries, all this will change. But for now, at least the politicians themselves are bravely soldiering on. Massachusetts voters decided to stay home, but Representative Alice K. Wolf of north and west Cambridge busily worked to get people out to vote. Seemingly oblivious to the waste of time, energy and money that were yesterday's primaries, her campaign headquarters were buzzing with activity, focused on beating the most inscrutable of political opponents--voter apathy...