Alan K. Simpson Quotes

Having a representative democracy requires the confidence of the voters in the system. And if voters lose confidence in the system they can make some very bad decisions.

Electoral turnout is falling among the young, and political apathy is on the rise.

Fifty percent of people won't vote, and fifty percent don't read newspapers. I hope it's the same fifty percent.

Public perception of the Westminster arena, with all its posturings, does little to engender a sense of voter belief.

Too many people are voting.

There is more to the right to vote than the right to mark a piece of paper and drop it in a box or the right to pull a lever in a voting booth .... It also includes the right to have the vote counted at full value without dilution or discount.

If the Gods Wanted Us to Vote, They Would Have Given Us Better Candidates

Elections are always about turnout.

If we don't allow people to vote in America, what is our democracy? It's a sham.

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

For too many years, those eligible to vote in primary or general elections did not bother to do so. Those sensible centrists who do not go to rallies but care deeply about our country effectively silenced their own voices. That sent the message to incumbents that they were either doing the right thing or that we just did not care.

Representative democracy is in crisis in the United States.

They want everybody to vote. I don't want everybody to vote. . . . As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.

I have never voted in my life... I have always known and understood that the idiots are in a majority so it's certain they will win.

Unlike their Western counterparts, Africans take elections very seriously - rising up early to queue patiently in line for hours under the hot sun and cast their ballots. Any misguided attempt to nullify or steal their votes will evoke a strong reaction from them.

The right to vote gives every eligible American a voice in our electoral politics. There's too much at stake to stay silent as this right is eroded.

When public access to voting is impaired or when public confidence in voting is diluted, democracy suffers and our freedom is less secure.

Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates.

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.

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

I don't think everyone should vote. If you have to be dragged into the polls, carried into the polls and smelling salts have to be used, you probably shouldn't be voting. However, we shouldn't be putting up barriers to voting that target certain groups.

Our only hope is to control the vote.

There are a number of Americans who shouldn't vote. The number is 57 percent, to judge by the combined total of Clinton and Perot ballots in the 1996 presidential election.

If we ever get to the polls once, you will never get us home.

I am a relatively new Member to this Chamber, and it is troublesome to me and I can tell Members it is getting very troublesome to my constituents when they hear this repeated consistent drum beat of a corruption of the democratic process.