I've got a friend who told me in October 2000 that he didn't think his vote mattered. He lives in Florida. Three years ago, he told me to quit forwarding him news articles with the subject line "does it matter yet?" He'd gotten the point. Damn good thing he loves me, cause I can be annoying as hell sometimes.

I've always been fascinated by Australia's mandatory voting policies....but they've kind of left me wondering about something. Pixies seems as good a place to ask as any, since it's on topic in this thread: if you knew that you would be forced to vote, would it make you any more interested in paying attention to the issues around you? Or would those who don't care today (not the only reason not to vote, just one that puzzles me) vote casually and ignorantly? Not that I'm saying that some of the votes that ARE cast aren't done in ignorance....just curious to know if the new votes wouldn't just make the signal/noise problem worse.

Wandering back to the pics now ,

G