Polls close in high-stakes Hungarian election as Magyar seeks to oust Orbán

A Tisza victory could lead to an overhaul in relations between Budapest and Brussels.

Telewizja Polska S.A

@benroyce

“As voting closed at 7 pm, turnout stood at 77.8%…”

That’s amazing. Meanwhile, in this dystopian society, that’s the percentage who can’t be bothered to vote.

Here’s to changing that in 2026.

100 days before #Arizona #primates!

@evoterra @benroyce
In Australia that turnout would be considered disastrous & prompt an investigation into what went wrong & how to fix it.
Make voting easy, proportional & compulsory.
@JustRobForNow @evoterra @benroyce I like the Australian system (I think STV), other than compulsory voting. Not voting can also be a statement of political choice, even if it is too often abused.

@hoare_spitall @JustRobForNow @evoterra

not voting is for morons

Mamdani v Cuomo

Magyar v Orban

HELLLOOOOOO???

@benroyce @JustRobForNow @evoterra To vote or not to vote . . . . I stand by my statement. And while I support a very large proportion of what @benroyce says, I think it would improve his viewpoint of electoral democracy if he were to be able to stop viewing the exhibition in the lobby only through the US letterbox. When there are 30 candidates, and none of them are worth a vote, then it's a tad hard to label the non-voter a moron. It's not always a simple strategy game.

@hoare_spitall

Stawman argument.

“None of them are worth a vote” is rarely true, but is the cry of the detached non-voter clinging to some misguided sense of moral clarity.

I used to be one. I’ve grown. It’s possible.

@benroyce @JustRobForNow

@evoterra @benroyce @JustRobForNow So, in how many political systems have you actually qualified to actually cast a vote?
@hoare_spitall @evoterra @benroyce @JustRobForNow
I understand your position and respectfully disagree.
IMVHO the Australian system puts the friction in approximately the right place: spoiling your ballot - legal. Not showing up, illegal.
Edit: in my case, 3 — have voted in UK (FPTP, optional vote), NZ (proportional, optional vote) & Aus (proportional, compulsory vote).
@jaystephens @evoterra @benroyce @JustRobForNow And I fully respect your disagreement. Thank you.
@hoare_spitall @jaystephens @evoterra @benroyce @JustRobForNow Which means you don't have to vote for anyone, but you do have to turn up and deliberately not vote for anyone. You can draw rude pictures on the ballot if you wish. The point is that your choice is your choice.

@ariaflame @hoare_spitall @jaystephens @evoterra @JustRobForNow

and while i disagree with that choice, getting lazy assholes to go to the polling station is 99% of the problem

so if someone is standing there and still wants to draw a dick on their ballot, i'm fine with it, even if i disagree with it, because *most* people will at least make a fucking choice once standing there

which improves this world

@benroyce @hoare_spitall @jaystephens @evoterra @JustRobForNow
To be fair in Australia it really does not take much time to vote. I'm usually in and out in under half an hour. Because we have a lot of easily accessible polling stations. We don't have to take time off work to go (it's on Saturdays). It doesn't take hours to get in. If you can't manage Saturday there is early voting. Sometimes it is laziness, but some places it's a choice between voting and survival.

@ariaflame @hoare_spitall @jaystephens @evoterra @JustRobForNow

and we could have that in the USA, if we fucking voted and sustained the effort, and iterated to better

rather than stupid losers not voting, waiting until centrist assholes magically become leftist as their demand before participation, thereby only helping MAGA remove their voting rights even more

@benroyce @ariaflame @hoare_spitall @jaystephens @evoterra @JustRobForNow I don't know whether it would help in the US or not, but having grown up in Australia with voting as a civic duty, rather than a right to be exercised or not, makes it feel different. It's a real leveller, everyone has to do it from the binman to the hippy artist to the investment banker.

The social pressure to go along and vote - and to think about what you're doing - is pretty strong. I think it's a real positive.

@brad @benroyce @ariaflame @hoare_spitall @jaystephens @evoterra @JustRobForNow is there a “none of the above” option? Or any protest candidates in relation to any perceived lack of choice on the ballot paper?

@oftencalledcathy @benroyce @ariaflame @hoare_spitall @jaystephens @evoterra @JustRobForNow No - people will do a "donkey vote", where they write in "Mickey Mouse" or some other character; or put their ballot in the box without marking it, or draw dicks etc. on it.

At least they turned up and protested at the choices on offer. Better (I think) than the "turnout" measure for judging voter apathy since that's affected by more factors external to the individual voter.

@brad @oftencalledcathy @benroyce @hoare_spitall @jaystephens @evoterra @JustRobForNow I thought donkey vote was where they numbered from 1 starting at the top, no matter who was there?
@ariaflame @oftencalledcathy @benroyce @hoare_spitall @jaystephens @evoterra @JustRobForNow I've always encountered it as a catch-all for spoiled or pointless votes - you could well be right about that though, at least its original meaning. I'd have to look it up 🙂
@brad @oftencalledcathy @benroyce @hoare_spitall @jaystephens @evoterra @JustRobForNow I double checked and yes, it's either 1 down through them all or starts with the last number and goes down. And technically it's a legal vote which is why the first spot on a ballot is picked by effectively bingo/lotto in most states. (Well all spots or at least the party order. Take little balls out of a tumbler)
@ariaflame @oftencalledcathy @benroyce @hoare_spitall @jaystephens @evoterra @JustRobForNow It's a while since I last voted in Australia; one easy way to dilute the impact of donkey voting would be to randomise the order of candidates on ballot papers. You'd have as many versions of the paper in an electorate as there were candidates, simple enough with computers.