Are You Sure About That?

Don't vote if you don't know.

Everyone is promoting voting, which is great, as long as you know what you're doing. BUT, if you don't feel that you understand what or who you're voting for very well, don't vote. I'm not so sure that a low voter turnout is necessarily such a terrible thing. If the only people participating are those who take the time to properly research the topics and candidates before casting their vote, won't we all be better off than if everyone votes but only a few of them actually know what's going on?

I'm not suggesting that nobody should vote, or that only some elite subset of society be allowed to choose our direction. I'm just asking that if you're going to vote, that you inform yourself first--through reputable means--and that if you can't or won't take the time to do that, that you do not force your uninformed and unjustified opinion on everyone else by casting a ballot.

I don't understand the pressure to get higher voter turnout, without taking care to ensure that they are quality votes. Votes based purely on what a person may have caught of a few politician's or lobbying group's television commercials are not quality votes.

What do you think? Would it be better to have everyone voting, regardless of whether they have good information to base their decision on? Or are we better off to trust those around us who take the time to adaquately research the topics?

In my opinion neither situation is ideal. The ideal would be that everyone be smart and informed and make a sound decision based on what they think is best for themselves, their community and the country; but that's not going to happen.