The ‘democracy gap’ in our politics and elections spells a deep sense of powerlessness by people who drop out, do not vote, or listlessly vote for the ‘least worst’ every four years and then wonder why after every cycle the ‘least worst’ gets worse. Ralph Nader
It’s amazing to me how many people think that voting to have the government give poor people money is compassion. Helping poor and suffering people yourself is compassion. Voting for our government to use guns to give money to help poor and suffering people is immoral, self-righteous, bullying laziness. Penn Jillette
Republicans have been accused of abandoning the poor. It’s the other way around. They never vote for us. Dan Quayle
My friends, the vote you make in just a few moments is one you’ll have to live with and your grandchildren have to live with. There ought to be a few places left in the world the way the Almighty made them. We’ll never see a Buffalo herd again ... This is the test of conservation in your Congressional career – this will be the most important vote you will cast. Morris K Udall
The very right to vote imposes on me the duty to instruct myself in public affair, however little influence my voice may have in them. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract III:11
Vote for my husband. Vote Walls. The Casual Vacancy III, wife distributes leaflets, BBC 2011
No-one voted for the coalition. Rory Bremner’s Coalition Report, BBC 2015
Votes for women. Campaign slogan
Owen listened with contempt and anger. Here was a man who grumbled at the present state of things, yet took no trouble to think for himself and try to alter them, and who at the first chance would vote for the perpetuation of the System which produced his misery. Robert Tressell, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist
Voter appeal, after all, is hard to quantify. How can it be measured?
It can’t really – except in one case. The key is to measure a candidate against … himself. That is, Candidate A today is likely to be similar to Candidate A two or four years hence. Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner, Freakonomics introduction
The amount of money spent by the candidates hardly matters at all. ibid.
The Swiss study suggests that we may be driven to vote less by a financial incentive than a social one. ibid.
A rational individual should abstain from voting. Patricia Funk, economist
In the south black voters are kept off the rolls and out of the voting booths by systematic intimidation and fear. Selma 2014 starring David Oyelowo & Tom Wilkinson & Carmen Ejogo & Andre Holland & Tessa Thompson & Giovanni Ribisi & Lorraine Toussaint & Stephan James & Wendell Pierce & Common & Alessandro Nivola & Keith Stanfield & Cuba Gooding & Dylan Baker & Tim Roth et al, director Ava DuVernay
Votes for women! [throws stone through window]. Suffragette 2015 starring Helena Bonham Carter & Carey Mulligan & Meryl Streeo & Natalie Press & Annie-Marie Duff & Romola Garai & Ben Whisaw & Brendon Gleeson & Samuel West & Adrian Schiller et al, director Sarah Gavron
As Mrs Pankhurst says, it’s deeds not words that will get us the vote. ibid.
Vote for Wilcot – the man who knows exactly what he’s doing. Left, Right and Centre 1959 starring Ian Carmichael & Alastair Sim & Patricia Bredin & Richard Wattis & Eric Barker & Moyra Fraser & Jack Hedley & Gordon Harker & William Kendall & George Benson, et al, director Sindey Gilliat, man with megaphone in car
The majority vote by Britons to leave the European Union was an act of raw democracy. Millions of ordinary people refused to be bullied, intimidated and dismissed with open contempt by their presumed betters in the major parties, the leaders of the business and banking oligarchy and the media.
This was, in great part, a vote by those angered and demoralised by the sheer arrogance of the apologists for the ‘remain’ campaign and the dismemberment of a socially just civil life in Britain. The last bastion of the historic reforms of 1945, the National Health Service, has been so subverted by Tory and Labour-supported privateers it is fighting for its life. John Pilger, Why the British Said No to Europe, 2016
All along George W Bush had been telling everybody I’m gonna carry Florida. American Blackout, 2006, dude on news
They’ve tried to turn people away and it’s not right. ibid. disenfranchised black Florida voter
If all the votes had been counted in Florida and if all the African-Americans had had an opportunity to caste their vote, George Bush would never have been president of the United States. ibid. dude #3
Somebody has a formula. ibid. dude #4
I was on my way to vote: there was a roadblock. ibid. woman #1
I don’t believe the American people even to this day really understand what happened in Florida. ibid. Cynthia McKinney
The story of individuals who were aggrieved by what went on, that went to the back burner and fell out of the story. ibid. Christopher Edley
Florida was an apartheid election, a Jim Crow election. ibid. dude #5
George W Bush won the 2000 election by 537 votes in Florida. ibid. caption
In one of the most contentious presidential elections ever a hidden fact is that millions of Americans lost their vote to various methods employed in a coordinated multi-million-dollar operation. Abby Martin, The Empire Files: The Hidden Purging of Millions of Voters, 2017
These myths are perpetrated by right-wing politicians and media. ibid.
The Tory manifesto had some incredibly unpopular policies: the most unpopular one obviously this idea that if you’re a pensioner, you get dementia – you might lose your house. That’s the most unpopular policy you can come up with for pensioners. For pensioners that’s like putting VAT on racism. And it amazes me – pensioners won’t just acquiesce into having a Conservative government they’ll actually go out and vote for it. These people will crawl along the pavement to go and vote themselves out of their own house! Frankie Boyle’s New World Order I, BBC 2017
This year, women must place their own votes for the first time. Adnan Sarwar, Journey in the Danger Zone e2: Iraq, BBC 2018
‘Over the past year the Supreme Court in more than one case has tackled gerrymandering.’ Field of Vision: Crooked Lines, Berra & Richen & Olive, short 11.38, PBS News 2018
Covington v North Carolina Val Applewhite: ‘It impacts their lives.’ ibid. Interview
‘A mass of crooked lines.’ ibid.
‘Egregious to the democratic principles of this country.’ ibid. Val
‘Drawing the lines in order to dilute the voting power of a minority, of a racial minority.’ ibid. lecturer
‘The Supreme Court directed the North Carolina legislature to redraw the maps.’ ibid. Val
Following the hearings, the federal courts ruled the state legislature’s drafts of the new maps invalid. ibid. caption
These new maps will be used in the midterm elections. ibid.
In 2017, national elections are held in France. The National Front, a far-right party, is defeated. Shortly after the official results announcement, its leader, Marine le Pen, is spotted on the dance floor. She received 33.9% of the vote, continuing her party’s rise in French politics. Field of Vision: Dancing with Le Pen, short 22:20, captions, Nora Mandray, 2018
1972: Marine le Pen’s father – Jean-Marie le Pen – co-founds the National Front, a new far-right party. In his first presidential run he receives 0.75% of the vote. Le Pen fails to get the necessary signatures to run for president. ibid.
Jean-Marie le Pen declares ‘the gas chambers are a mere detail of history.’ ibid.
‘20 years from now France will be an Islamic state … ’ He receives 14% of the vote. ibid. Le Pen on tele with chart alleging proliferation of Mosques
2017 three days before the vote: ‘Ending immigration, and sending immigrants back to their countries.’ ibid.
Jean-Marie le Pen assaults a left-wing opponent. He is banned from politics for one year. His daughter acts as his defence-attorney. ibid.