A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls.

I think I’m one of the most patriotic people that I’ve ever encountered in America. I consider myself a bedrock patriot. I participate very actively in local politics, because my voice might be worthwhile. I participate in a meaningful way – not by donations; I work at it.

Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets.

The voting booth joint is a great leveler; the whole neighborhood – rich, poor, old, young, decrepit and spunky – they all turn out in one day.

I always like to take my time and examine the two candidates, see not only the two candidates but the policies they will bring in, the people they will bring in, who they might appoint to the Supreme Court, and look at the whole range of issues before making a decision.

I’m glad I can’t vote.

Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting.

Locally, I’ll vote one way and nationally, maybe another.

You’ve got to vote, vote, vote, vote. That’s it; that’s the way we move forward. That’s how we make progress for ourselves and for our country.

The ballot is stronger than the bullet.

All the blood is drained out of democracy – it dies – when only half the population votes.

The elections are run by the same industries that sell toothpaste on television.

If you know how to read, you have a complete education about life, then you know how to vote within a democracy. But if you don’t know how to read, you don’t know how to decide. That’s the great thing about our country – we’re a democracy of readers, and we should keep it that way.

The key is to vote because we need a vote to put the people in power that we want to represent us.

Nowadays, politically, everybody is promising everything. That’s the only way you can get elected.

Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.

I think it’s important to vote.

The Democrats do fine in presidential elections; their problem is they can’t get out the vote in the midterm elections.

Some say we should not engage in activism. Instead we should leave everything to our politicians and just vote for a change instead. But what do we do when there is no political will? What do we do when the politics needed are nowhere in sight?

Elections aren’t just about who votes but who doesn’t vote.

I’ve rarely kept my distance from kind of – I don’t know if we can call it politics, but kind of, civic engagement and that kind of thing, except I tended to think, ‚Well, do it yourself before you start telling other people what they should be doing.‘

I just received the following wire from my generous Daddy; Dear Jack, Don’t buy a single vote more than is necessary. I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay for a landslide.

Elections should be held on April 16th- the day after we pay our income taxes. That is one of the few things that might discourage politicians from being big spenders.

One of the best predictors of policy around is Thomas Ferguson’s investment theory of politics, as he calls it – very outstanding political economist – which essentially – I mean, to say it in a sentence, he describes elections as occasions in which groups of investors coalesce and invest to control the state.

No part of the education of a politician is more indispensable than the fighting of elections.

If the United States of America or Britain is having elections, they don’t ask for observers from Africa or from Asia. But when we have elections, they want observers.

I ran for the Senate six times. And one of the things I know about Senate races off years and on races, and on years, the same as governor’s races, is it’s all local. It all gets down to what the specific issues in that – in that district or that state is.

If people don’t vote, everything stays the same. You can protest until the sky turns yellow or the moon turns blue, and it’s not going to change anything if you don’t vote.

We do need women in civic life. We do need women to run for office, to be in political office. We need a feminist to be at the table when decisions are being made so that the right decisions will be made.

If everybody that voted in 2008 shows up in 2010, we will win this election. We will win this election.

A President needs political understanding to run the government, but he may be elected without it.