Shaunak's Dimension

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Damned hard to stuff ballot boxes with those figures.

I did not vote some elections already and I don't think I am going to vote in the next future. I know, democracy is important and all that stuff but actually I don't see the point in voting considering the present condition of italian politics, which looks like the Titanic orchestra that plays while the ship sinks.

Then vote None of the Above. I don't vote for the Dutch general election, as I don't live there (but as a citizen I could), and I don't vote for the Thai one (where I do live) because I can't as I'm not a citizen... But I do believe, if you don't vote, you have no right to complain at how bad the situation is.

That is the Big Fat Lie.
If you vote, whatever you vote, you just give your approval to what happens next. Not voting is the only way to be counted as "opposed" instead of "supporting". Here we are going towards an US-like situation, with two main parties that basically keep things going in the same way, regardless who is elected. Plus, with the current law, we just vote the party, not the person. Then the party decides who will be sent to the parliament or other charges. That means NOBODY is elected by the people, just nominated by parties.

Interesting to hear and to follow the development in India! We have the election in the beginning of june in Europe, for the European parliament, Not that many people go the vote though...I will

Amazing numbers!

Just the candidate count alone (8,070) is mind boggling.

None of the above can be powerful. A few years back here in Thailand, the then ruling party called a snap-election, with 28 or so days to campaign. A politcal trick to remain in power, according to the opposition, who decided not to run, to field no candidates whatsoever.
Result, about 40% of the people voted None of the Above, leaving many constituencies without representatives (30 empty seats in the lower house or something). This led the constitutional court or some other court to declare the elections null and void.

OK, the next solution was for the military to stage a coup, but that was because our former (not so) Glorious Leader Thugsin didn't want to leave, even after he was told to do so...

Democracy is a difficult beast to tame. Voting only for parties, has its drawbacks, but in Thailand it's almost only character voting. You vote for a certain person, because he is handsome or she is beautiful. Almost no one campaigns explaining what they're planning to do with the country; the plans and policies they will try to implement remain a complete mistery until, say six months after the elections. No use either.
The problem is, democracy only works properly if everyone who votes has a clear idea what they want to happen to their country, and then around election time (almost wrote erection time! ) really digs deep into each party's policies to find out if theirs correspond with his ideas. The weakness of this is exactly why communism doesn't work either; it lies in the word everyone. There's no way you can get everyone to cooperate with a single idea...

Those numbers are mindblowing. Good grief, a polling station at 15,300 feet!!

I occasionally count votes in the UK elections for the council and I can say that if people don't vote, they are presumed not to care. If, however, their spoil their ballet by scribbling across it, well, that's different. All spoilt ballets must be counted and the total is announced at the end in front of the candidates and the press. I don't know if that's the same in other countries though.

So vote rigging is possible since the votes are counted by machines and machines can be hacked.