gjm comments on 2013 Census/Survey: call for changes and additions - Less Wrong

27 Post author: Yvain 05 November 2013 03:10AM

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Comment author: gjm 05 November 2013 03:05:36PM 6 points [-]

"Vote in primaries" is a bit US-specific. How about "vote in national elections only" and "vote in other elections" (which would cover primaries, elections for local government, etc.)? Something like that, anyway.

Comment author: Xachariah 14 November 2013 08:34:35PM 1 point [-]

"Voting in primaries" is US specific, but it is significantly stronger than "voting in other elections." We have an order of magnitude more people voting in state elections than in primaries.

In fact, it's probably the strongest thing that you can do to influence politics in America. It's significantly rarer than volunteering to help elect parties or writing letters to your senator, and everyone who's at a primary already does those things.

Comment author: Nornagest 16 November 2013 12:40:31AM *  4 points [-]

I only bothered looking up the statistics for California, but there I found 31% of registered voters showing up for the 2012 presidential primary elections, as opposed to 75% for the general election. (The statistics for eligible voters are somewhat lower, but more or less proportionally so.) That's a significant difference, but we're not talking an order of magnitude, and I'd be very surprised to find that that many people are politically engaged in more substantive ways.

Comment author: Emile 05 November 2013 08:52:16PM 1 point [-]

France has primaries too now, I think it's an informative option to offer. How about "votes in parties' internal election, like primaries"?

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 09 November 2013 08:43:18AM 0 points [-]

I believe that the amount of effort this takes depends very much on the country.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 05 November 2013 04:44:49PM 1 point [-]

Fine with me. I'm not politically active, even in just one country, so I was fairly uncertain about what should go on the list.

For that matter, should going to demonstrations be on the list? How about organizing demonstrations?