Not Voting Quotes

A laconic Texas lawmaker declined to use his considerable influence to intervene in a loud dispute between his colleagues. When asked why not, he said, They're not voting. If they're not voting, they're not passing any laws. If they're not passing any laws, they're not hurting anybody. ~ Robert A. Caro

Vote wisely, even if that means not voting at all. ~ Ashleigh Brilliant

Calling out people for not voting, what experts term 'public shaming,' can prod someone to cast a ballot. ~ Charles Duhigg

You know, others keep saying that there are too many candidates in the race, and once it gets down to a two-person race that Trump can't get above that 30 to 35 percent that he's gotten both in the polling and in the elections and that the others will start pulling out that 65 the 70 percent not voting for Tromp. But there's absolutely no evidence that all of that vote will go to another candidate. ~ Cokie Roberts

According to the U.S. Census, the most common reason people give for not voting is that they were too busy or had conflicting work or school schedules. ~ Jeff Miller

I love seeing on Twitter when someone says I'm gay, and I say, 'So what does it matter if I am? So be it. I hope you are not voting for me because you are making the presumption that I'm straight.' ~ Cory Booker

If Hillary can't win the nomination - and it's clearly very, very hard for her - she's basically a stalking horse for McCain. She's preparing the demographic ground for McCain, by getting white working-class Democrats used to (if you will) not voting for Obama. ~ Rich Lowry

The lesser of two evils is still evil. ~ Solomon

The Republicans have put together serious detailed counter-proposals when we have objected to this administration's agenda. And so, I want to tell the President and remind him again, we're not voting no for political expediency. We've got our principles, and we're going to stand up and defend those. ~ Eric Cantor

Normally when people say they haven't decided, they're being polite but they're definitely not voting for you. I think it's different this time. People are thinking hard about the issues. ~ David Cameron

Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

We are not voting for health care if we do not resolve this language on public funding for abortion - no public funding for abortion. ~ Bart Stupak

Are people who want this kind of progressive change not turning up at polling stations? Are they not voting for progressive representatives? It's hard to put your finger on why we are where we are. ~ Scarlett Johansson

Woodward, a registered Republican, did not vote. He couldn't decide whether he was more uneasy with the disorganization and naïve idealism of McGovern's campaign or with Richard Nixon's conduct. And he believed that not voting enabled him to be more objective in reporting on Watergate - a vier Bernstein regarded as silly. Bernstein voted for McGovern, unenthusiastically and unhesitatingly, then bet in the office pool that Nixon would win with 54 percent.

-- Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward ~ Carl Bernstein

[Marco Rubio] a total non-show senator. I mean, he was elected - he defrauded the people of Florida. He was elected to be a senator. He was elected to go and vote on important matters, and he's all over the country. He's not voting. I mean, he's not voting. ~ Donald Trump

I know some say, let us have good laws, and no matter for the men that execute them: but let them consider, that though good laws do well, good men do better: for good laws may want good men, and be abolished or evaded [invaded in Franklin's print] by ill men; but good men will never want good laws, nor suffer ill ones. ~ Patrick Henry

I have a very, very hard time voting for Mrs. [Hillary] Clinton. ~ Bret Stephens

A greater sense of do-it-yourself (DIY) politics is exposed by the fact Cascadians are more likely to disagree that "voting is the only way people like me can have a say about how the government runs things" (54 percent disagree versus 37 percent, RoNA). ~ Douglas Todd

If citizens are punished instantly for breaking the laws, then politicians should also be punished immediately for breaking the promises. ~ Amit Kalantri

Feminism gained popularity as a result of 'secular' work and scholarship, but the line between sacred and secular is man-made. Because God is the source of truth, Christians can still give thanks to God for the good works associated with feminism, such as the gaining of status for women as 'persons' under the law, voting, owning property, and defending themselves in a court of law against domestic violence and rape. ~ Sarah Bessey

All Negroes shall be prohibited from voting, holding public office, practicing law, medicine, or teaching in any class above the grade of grammar school, and they shall be taxed 100 per cent of all sums in excess of $10,000 per family per year which they may earn or in any other manner receive. ~ Sinclair Lewis

Well, I was a very strong opponent of the war, in fact, one of those who went door to door to my colleagues and thus achieved 60 percent of the Democrats voting no against this war. ~ Jan Schakowsky

The real con artist is Senator Marco Rubio.Who was elected in Florida and who has the worst voting record in the United States Senate. He doesn't go to vote. He's absent. ~ Donald Trump

You know what? I think the American people are a little pissed, and I think they're pissed at both parties - I think they're really pissed at both parties - and it will be reflected during election time ... ~ Whoopi Goldberg

But if you stay, no part of this comm gets to decide that any part of this comm is expendable. No voting on who gets to be people. ~ N.K. Jemisin

The story of Detroit's bankruptcy was simple enough: Allow capitalism to grow the city, campaign against income inequality, tax the job creators until they flee, increase government spending in order to boost employment, promise generous pension plans to keep people voting for failure. Rinse, wash and repeat. ~ Ben Shapiro

Consensus politics means that you cannot afford to give the many-headed beast, the public, anything to vote against, for voting against is what gargantuan pseudodemocracy has to come down to. ~ Germaine Greer

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was indeed a vital instrument of democracy, ensuring the integrity and reliability of a democratic process that we as a Country hold so dear. ~ Charles B. Rangel

Sometimes, people forget my record of fiscal conservatism on major issues in the state legislature. The greatest example is my voting against the pension borrowing scheme in 1997. ~ Leonard Lance

We see people voting for bills that their ideals and principles are opposed to, but because their little funding project is in there, they're voting for it. We might say it's one percent of all spending but the impact of that spending is far greater. ~ Sean Duffy

They teach us that the supreme act of citizenship is to choose among savior, by going into a voting booth every four years to choose between two white and well-off Anglo-Saxon males of inoffensive personality and orthodox opinions. ~ Howard Zinn

You may be pretty or plain, heavy or thin, gay or straight, poor or rich. But remember this: In an election, every voice is equally powerful
don't underestimate your vote. Voting is the great equalizer. ~ Maya Angelou

It was the biggest suppression of voting rights in our country's history since Jim Crow. And the thread of race runs from the beginning to the end of my book. ~ Sidney Blumenthal

The only reason I can imagine that it would be a good idea for government to foster dependency in large groups of citizens is to cultivate a dependable voting bloc that will guarantee continued power as long as the entitlements are provided. The problem of course is that such a government will eventually "run out of other people's money," as Margaret Thatcher once famously said. ~ Ben Carson

In other words if a man is armed, then one pretty much has to take his opinions into account. One can see how this worked at its starkest in Xenophon's Anabasis, which tells the story of an army of Greek mercenaries who suddenly find themselves leaderless and lost in the middle of Persia. They elect new officers, and then hold a collective vote to decide what to do next. In a case like this, even if the vote was 60/40, everyone could see the balance of forces and what would happen if things actually came to blows. Every vote was, in a real sense, a conquest. ~ David Graeber

Vote. Even if they are all hopelessly inadequate, pick the least terrible one and vote. My mother fought hard to get you that vote. ~ Rowan Coleman

But even the machinery of voting is profoundly Christian in this practical sense - that it is an attempt to get at the opinion of those who would be too modest to offer it. ~ G.K. Chesterton

There is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust. ~ James Madison

The most significant civil rights problem is voting. Each citizen's right to vote is fundamental to all the other rights of citizenship and the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960 make it the responsibility of the Department of Justice to protect that right. ~ Robert Kennedy

Spaniards were condemned for appeasing terrorism by voting for withdrawing troops from Iraq in the absence of U.N. authorization - that is, for taking a stand rather like that of 70 percent of Americans, who called for the U.N. to take the leading role in Iraq. ~ Noam Chomsky

Only those who would be called upon to risk their lives for their country should have the privilege of voting to determine whether the nation should go to war. ~ Smedley Butler

We must arise and build the nation. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few. ~ George Bernard Shaw

That the will of the people can be established by voting for democrats is, of course, a delusion. Yet when considering a non-threatening system for deciding between diverse interests, then voting, of course, can be regarded as a humane and civilized process. ~ Robert Musil

It is a sign of the times that the absence of meaningful ID requirements in many states leaves our voting process vulnerable to fraud and allows legal votes to be cancelled out by illegally cast ballots. ~ Virgil Goode

When God wants to judge a nation, He gives them wicked rulers. ~ John Calvin

I cast my first vote on my father's lap in 1960, for Richard Nixon, in the voting booth. I was 8. ~ Christopher Buckley

Disfranchisement is the deliberate theft and robbery of the only protection of poor against rich and black against white. ~ W.E.B. Du Bois

I have an idea about voting, how about on every ballot we include "None of the above". People may laugh at that, but what that is, it is a vote of no confidence in your government and I'm willing to bet that in some elections, 'None of the Above' would win. Imagine if you won the election but lost to 'None of the Above'. Wouldn't that make you re-think your positions? ~ Jesse Ventura

I'm so insane, I voted for Eisenhower. Oh yeah, well I'm so insane, I voted for Eisenhower TWICE! ~ Ken Kesey

My position hasn't changed over the years. Which is that online voting is a very unsafe idea and a very bad idea and something I think no technological breakthrough I can foresee can ever change. ~ Avi Rubin

We will all be better citizens when voting records of our Congressmen are followed as carefully as scores of pro-football games. ~ Louise Erickson

The important thing is that we are participating-whether it's by running, voting, or supporting (financially or otherwise) candidates who make a difference to women. Don't leave shit up to others, 'cause that's how we get fucked over. ~ Jessica Valenti