OT: long voting lines reported at UofM
No matter your political stance, we should be proud of our young people committing to participate in the sacred right to vote.
https://twitter.com/victorshi2020/status/1590054202008817664?s=46&t=Uipw6t6LoLJ0UNnkd45N7Q
November 8th, 2022 at 2:23 PM ^
STAY IN LINE NO MATTER WHAT, YOUNG PEOPLE!
November 8th, 2022 at 2:24 PM ^
YEAH!!!!!!!!!!
EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO BLOW OFF CLASSES!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 8th, 2022 at 2:27 PM ^
Ironically the crisler center “Who wants some free PIZZAAAAAAA??” may be addressed by people delivering them to the polls
November 8th, 2022 at 2:29 PM ^
Classes have been blown off for far, far less important things. Until and if Election Day is a day off for everyone, we all have to make some sacrifices to get to the polls. Mine was waking up a bit earlier to get there right at 6 this morning. Glad to see our young Wolverines participating in democracy.
November 8th, 2022 at 2:34 PM ^
Public schools here in chicago are off today
November 8th, 2022 at 2:44 PM ^
As is the NBA
November 8th, 2022 at 3:03 PM ^
so is the NCAA, or at least football is off. our college-playing son's team had practice (really just a film session) on sunday night instead of monday, regular practice yesterday, and no practice today.
November 8th, 2022 at 3:13 PM ^
Sir, there will be MACtion tonight.
November 8th, 2022 at 3:36 PM ^
MACtion doesn't take vacations.
MACtion doesn't observe major holidays.
MACtion is a jackhammer.
November 8th, 2022 at 4:45 PM ^
Here too -- the closest elementary school is our polling place. At least I get to see the improvements and renovations every couple of years, since it was "my" school back in the day.
No matter what you think about the potential impact of your vote, get out and vote.
November 8th, 2022 at 2:27 PM ^
As a resident of Ann Arbor, I can tell you that the damned students create long lines for EVERYTHING between late August and May. Get off my lawn, you little bastards...
November 8th, 2022 at 2:28 PM ^
Voting, football, Zingerman’s, Dominick’s…
November 8th, 2022 at 2:32 PM ^
Every damned restaurant! Parking structures! Grocery stores! They're like parasites. Little shits ;-)
November 8th, 2022 at 2:35 PM ^
i love going downtown in May
November 8th, 2022 at 3:01 PM ^
Nothing beats fall and football in Ann Arbor, but May-Aug is a wonderful time
November 8th, 2022 at 4:07 PM ^
Do most students update their permanent address to be voting in Ann Arbor? I would think most students would be voting absentee from wherever their parents live.
November 8th, 2022 at 6:57 PM ^
Many teens and early twenties folks register for the first time as college students. They often get signed up to vote by peers who hand out registration material on campus. voting rates are pretty low in the youngest cohort of voting age people. Many don't register as high school seniors even if they are eligible to do so.
November 8th, 2022 at 6:10 PM ^
"...the damned students create long lines for EVERYTHING between late August and May..."
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA!!!!!
I remember my son (we are Michigan natives), dorming on the North Campus, telling me that the Cali kids were pissed off waiting 30-60 minutes in the winter cold, while the buses were running late.
It was one of those POLAR VORTEX winters too!!!!
November 8th, 2022 at 2:29 PM ^
Regardless of political affiliation, hopefully everyone can agree that the younger generation taking an interest in the outcome of elections is a good thing.
November 8th, 2022 at 2:46 PM ^
Well, in theory more participation means less chicanery
November 8th, 2022 at 2:48 PM ^
I would argue that trying to mentally organize and compartmentalize your positions and beliefs into something of a coherent structure is a valuable mental exercise. I guess in that sense figuring out how you would vote is as intrinsically important as the process of actually casting a vote.
November 8th, 2022 at 2:54 PM ^
I’d much prefer more 18 year olds voting than more 81 year olds. The 18 year olds are going to have to deal with the consequences for much longer.
November 8th, 2022 at 3:09 PM ^
Counterpoint: Even brilliant 18 year olds are morans.
November 8th, 2022 at 3:18 PM ^
The real question is, who is more likely to spell moron correctly?
November 8th, 2022 at 3:38 PM ^
or maroon
November 8th, 2022 at 3:46 PM ^
The 81-year-olds by far. Have you seen how young people spell these days?
If only they could channel the wisdom of 81 (or 51) and vote that way at 18. Vote the way you will by the time you figure out your mom or dad (if you had a decent one or two) actually had some wisdom, which is probably about the time the 18-year-olds of the day will decide that you have none!
I'm glad that I live to a large extent in the world my parents made for me and not the one I would have made for myself.
(and yes, there are people who live in perpetual adolescence who won't travel the same trajectory, but the generalization is generally true)
November 9th, 2022 at 1:36 AM ^
Those 81 year olds were raised in a shitier country where people were treated like shit based of a bunch of things that they don't control and thar doesn't define them. They were raised by parents of a society that tacitly supported self treatment of mental health with alcoholism.
My parents have a ton of wisdom. They are also old. That doesn't mean that old people have wisdom by default..
Old people people tend to have an inflexible worldview. Young people tend to be more willing to challenge their own and society's assumptions when they don't align with the stated morals of the country.
Every period of major societal progress in the US has been strongly resisted by those members of society more interested in the status quo than in fair and equitable treatment or American citizens. And then 30 years pass and society realizes that those preventing progress were protecting inhumane treatment of people who deserved none.
Young people voting in high numbers is a damn promising sign for a future with a more engaged electorate that better represents the will of ALL of the people, no just the zealots.
November 9th, 2022 at 9:56 AM ^
Well put. And I'd like to remind the old cranks complaining about young people voting that 18 year olds have the right to vote...because of Vietnam. A series of nightmarish decisions that affected young people, made by out of touch old people.
November 8th, 2022 at 4:24 PM ^
Counter counter point: thinking the younger generation doesn't know a damn thing about how the world should work has been going on since forever.
November 8th, 2022 at 6:24 PM ^
Everyone knows a moron is someone who disagrees with you.
November 8th, 2022 at 3:17 PM ^
that's like the argument that the young people of Britain were going to have to live with the consequences of Brexit; conveniently ignoring the fact that only the older generations remembered what it was like not to be a vassal state of Brussels.
November 8th, 2022 at 3:41 PM ^
Going great for them, by the way.
November 8th, 2022 at 4:19 PM ^
You don't know what a vassal state is, do you? Nor do you seem to have much of a grasp of how time works. Even older millennials will have pre-93 memories, not to mention all of Gen X.
November 8th, 2022 at 3:30 PM ^
Because 18 year olds are incredibly wise.
November 8th, 2022 at 3:31 PM ^
So you're saying that younger people tend to act with more foresight and care for future consequences?
November 8th, 2022 at 8:13 PM ^
Have you seen our elected representatives? Would not suggest that an older electorate has much of a track record to brag about
November 9th, 2022 at 1:45 AM ^
They tend to have future consequences such as the health of the planet, in mind when they vote. Absolutely.
The 81 year olds have had their head in the sand for decades as scientists screamed at the top of their lungs that bad things were happening and developed more and more accurate models that lined up with observed trends and made reasonable extrapolations that got more and more accurate (please save us both the time and don't try to rebut using headlines from click bait newspaper articles from the 90s that relied on flawed interpretations of science as evidence).
The oldest generation shaped a country where their grandchildren will inherit a crumbling empire on a dying planet. I'm sure you'll understand if I don't ascribe them wisdom on account of them still being alive for a while.
November 9th, 2022 at 1:12 PM ^
Absolutely correct.
It wasn't until 1970 that the very first of the so-called "Earth Day Protests" were held, I remember in the mid 70's marching with my high school senior classmates in downtown Grand Rapids on Earth Day.
And yet 50 years later, short-sighted politicians and a large portion of our population are still in denial of climate change and where this planet is headed unless we rethink energy.
November 8th, 2022 at 5:04 PM ^
I feel you blue but they are likely voting for OLD fucks who will be making decisions on their behalf!
November 8th, 2022 at 3:09 PM ^
We have a Representative Republic here in the good ole U S of A. Good to see all voices represented.
November 8th, 2022 at 7:03 PM ^
Democratically elected representative republic
November 8th, 2022 at 3:18 PM ^
Because an over representation of old people in the electorate isn't really positive for the country as a whole?
November 8th, 2022 at 3:40 PM ^
If only old people voted, and we had a democracy (majority rule), then no one would be allowed near the lawn.
November 8th, 2022 at 4:03 PM ^
if only old people voted, Chris Ash could finally Fence the Garden
November 8th, 2022 at 5:45 PM ^
And standing up and blocking the view of people who paid good money for their seats would be a felony offense. (Now sit down ... and don't you give me that look, mister!)
November 8th, 2022 at 3:50 PM ^
Because it means that they are willing to take the time out of their schedules to show up and vote. Regardless of how you feel about which way they vote, this is a good thing.
November 8th, 2022 at 3:57 PM ^
The average founding father was 44 years old. Many were founding teenagers and founding twenty-somethings (12 were under age 35), though one was 81!
November 8th, 2022 at 4:14 PM ^
The average life expectancy in the 1700s was in the 40s. I'm sure the mortality rate for births and young children factors heavily into that but even those who survived to adulthood didn't live nearly as long as people today.
November 8th, 2022 at 6:26 PM ^
Marriage was invented when life expectancy was in your 30s.