I dropped the ball...

[anotheranon]

I didn't vote in the state primaries today.

I take voting seriously. Enough so that I even research the candidates instead of automatically assuming that party affiliation is a good indicator of a candidate's stand on the actual issues.

But I totally lost track this time. And I've got no excuse - it's not like school has been eating my time.

Gonna put my head on the chopping block here so y'all can kick it around: should I have gone out and voted anyway, just to do my civic duty, even though I know nothing about the candidates?

Update 10:30 pm: Re: skill_grl's comment about eligibility of unaffiliated voters to vote in local primaries: here's the scoop, though I'm still fuzzy about this particular election - it wasn't a party primary, it was gubernatorial and various positions had candidates from both of the major parties. Yet, it was still a primary, so I'm still not sure if independents were even eligible to vote.

If someone can answer this for me I'll take my wrist-rapping with grace, either because I coulda voted but didn't, or because I didn't keep up well enough with my civic duty to know whether I even could vote today or not :/

Comments

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

We all have one slip by us; I know I have, so, in the interests of avoiding that whole glass houses/stone-throwing thing, I offer you my forgiveness.

For a second offense, however ...

If you do figure out this primaries thing, I'll be interested to hear about it as it's not something we have up here. And I know your explanation will be concise, clear, and unlikely to put me to sleep before I grasp the principle of the thing. ;-)

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

If I find out more, I'll send it on; meanwhile, rivka has a short explanation of primaries at the end of this post (http://rivka.livejournal.com/319051.html)

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

Ah ... THAT's what it is. Mention of "primaries" occasionally appears in our newspapers, but there's never enough depth to figure out what they are, other than first somethings (of course I've never been overly motivated to dig for meaning either ***grin***). Up here political affiliation and voter registration are as rigorously separated as church and state are supposed to be ... set-up of elections and voting is the domain of Elections Canada, which also polices the laws surrounding campaigning, etc. To join a particular party, you pay a membership fee ... then, as a club member, you have the right to participate in internal votes for leadership and other such stuff. Same rules/laws in every province, at both provincial and federal levels.