All I’m saying is that nobody gots da right to criticize others for their decision to vote one way or the other or not at all and that to not vote is to abstain.

Yes, this is all you said, and it is still wrong, for the reasons given above.

Repeating yourself does not make the statement any less wrong than it was the first time.

Those ancestors that fought, bled, died did so that I would have freedom to exercise choice, not be coerced or cajoled into voting for someone who has not earned that vote.

Agreed. Did you have a new point to make?

I never said you had to go and vote : I have said – repeatedly – that if you want to record an abstention you have to go to the polling station to do so.

Something you’ll never admit is that ya gots no point, Nige

Well, true, because I do have a point.

If you can’t be bothered to go and record an abstention or vote, then don’t ever try to fool anyone into thinking it is as some kind of protest against the system, because no-one with any power to alter the system cares. The only way you can make them care is by recording a vote or an abstention.

No, Genghis Dunce, I’m just claiming that I don’t care to cast a vote for someone who has not earned it and that no one has any business deciding that

Heh. Genghis Dunce.

I was not suggesting, nor implying, that you had to cast a vote for any candidate. If you re-read what I posted you might eventually be able to work that out.

What I am saying is that your stated reason for not showing up to vote doesn’t matter. If you don’t show up, you get counted as a “don’t care / can’t be bothered”. You have called what you did abstaining, and, sure, it fits the definition in your dictionary, but that means precisely squat when it comes to how votes and abstentions are counted.

My actions need to be any other than they are.

Again, I was not suggesting otherwise. What I did point out was that, as a no-show, you won’t be counted as an abstention and thus your disapproval of all candidates will not have been recorded as such.

I have better things on which to waste my time,

So, you don’t, in fact, care enough to have your disapproval recorded as an abstention.

. . . .Who cares how an abstention is counted?

Anyone who is trying to get votes, and anyone who cares about the state of the nation, for starters.

An abstention is a protest against the options available. SImply failing to show up is mere apathy or laziness.

You brought that up, I just said that, yes, they were counted after a fashion.

Nope, you called what you were doing abstention, and you claimed that it was because none of the candidates represented your viewpoint. If you had shown up to have your abstention recorded, this would be all fine and dandy. However, since you did not show up, your disapproval of the available choices was not recorded as such. You will have been recorded as a no-show, which – irrespective of dictionary definitions – is always interpreted as “don’t care / can’t be bothered”.

Your goofy arguments are with yourself.

So how come you are attempting to answer them?

I have more important duties to attend to than trying to live up to some bigmouth nutjob’s made-up expectations which are the fruit of his own self-indulgent fantasies that he wants to claim apply to all.

My expectations are anything but made up. They are simply based on the fact that, if you don’t show up to vote, your vote is not counted as an abstention, you are recorded simply as a no-show. You’re the one who claimed that you did not vote as a protest against the paucity of choice (my paraphrase, obviously). I (and at least one other commenter) was simply pointing out that your protest will be ignored because of the way you did it.

IOW, if you think failing to show up is ever going to achieve anything, you are deluding yourself.