Let's talk about voting
Why vote?
Before we even vote, we have to answer fundamental questions:
- Do elections really matter?
- Does our vote make a difference?
- If so, in what way?
- What does voting really consist in and why can it be such an effort?
- Does absence from voting have a meaning?
How do we vote?
We have decided to vote, now come the decisions:
- If we feel we already know what is best, do we know why?
- If none of the voting options is self-evident, whom do we choose and why?
- Do we work only on figuring out who we prefer, or do we also care how we came to that conclusion?
What happens after?
Perhaps there's more to voting than our choice on the voting bulletin:
- Do we consider the possible consequences of the election outcome?
- Does our vote respond to some of those consequences rather than just follow the desire for a candidate to win?
- Is our vote mostly guided by our own analysis or are we following a larger movement, whether we know it or not?
If we have persuaded you by now that elections and voting are worth a pause for thought, then we would like to invite you to look into some of their challenges. We are not going to provide recipes and we have no intention of telling you for whom to vote. We would just like to use examples to illustrate some questions which often occur in conjunction with voting in elections.
What will you find here?
This site offers a few scenarios to explore the arguments and dilemmas related to voting. There are other challenges related to voting: our emotions, our ability to perceive and discern, or the amount and quality of information we have access to. While important, these latter challenges are not part of the exploration we propose here.
The scenarios are purely fictive. They do not relate to any particular countries or political entities. They are simply intended to raise questions and to invite reflection.
Your feedback
If you find the materials on this site interesting, we would like to hear from you. If you find them lacking, we would like to hear from you too. They have been developed to test the relevance of the topics, as well as the ways to present them. Therefore your comments are essential. You can write to us either using the Contact form or simply by emailing to feedback@elexplore.eu.
If you would like to use the materials in activities in a language other than English, please let us know. We may be able to arrange subtitling.