Low Turnout Means Bad Candidates Win

When I'm not tired and sore from having to make an unscheduled stop at the orthodontist to have some work done, I'm often amused by people like Dinsdale who think that null sec domination of the CSM is bad, but then go around the EVE community stating there is no one to vote for and basically drive down voter turnout.  If someone truly cannot find a candidate to vote for and doesn't vote, I fully understand.  I only voted for 5 people for that same reason.  But if you are a "Grr Goons" type of person, the only way to vote against the null sec voting line is to vote for other candidates.

The lower the turnout, the greater the power of the voting organizations like the CFC election machine.  That's not an EVE thing, by the way.  In the U.S., we see the same thing in our off-year Congressional elections.  The activists in both parties have greater sway than when the general public comes out to vote for president in years divisible by 4.

If you don't believe me, then would you believe The Mittani?  Here's what he recently told Goonswarm in a CEO update:

"It's CSM season again, and voting has opened. Thankfully CCP has made it very easy to vote with multiple accounts; once you enter your roster of 14 aspiring spaceship politicians the first time, for each account you log in those same selections remain. Vote early, vote often - and vote the appropriate ballot which we have carefully selected for you.

"We've got a very strong roster this year including a number of independent candidates, as well as GSF heavyweights Sion Kumitomo and Mynnna, not to mention favored ALOD-writer Angry Mustache. Given how poor a job CCP did with getting the CSM8 minutes out the door, my personal take on this election is that turnout will be at an all-time low. If I'm right, that's hilarious news for the CFC, because there's nothing this coalition does quite like marching and voting in lockstep. In a low turnout situation, the impact of organization, unity and force is magnified. Even if you don't care about the CSM, vote the way we tell you to, simply because it'll make a gaggle of shitlords who hate us very, very angry should we succeed."

In a low turnout election, I see two bloc candidates who should not win possibly get seats.  The first is Angry Mustache.  He makes me ... angry.  From what I can tell, between ratting and his writing for TheMittani.com, rivals the ISK Sugar Kyle makes in profits from The Cougar Store.  Yet, he claims space poverty and even claims that null sec is the worst place for a pilot to earn ISK.  That's why one of the reasons that Angry Mustache is running is to get the free year subscription that all CSM members get.  Given how many AFK Ishtars Xander Phoena manages to lose and still come out ahead, I find that claim hard to believe.  Of course, Angry Mustache, at least to me, sounds pretty clueless about a lot of things related to EVE.  Judging by the reactions of other members on the Declarations of War panel on Sov, Power Projection, and PvP Balance, particularly Psianh Auvyander, I'm not the only one.

The other bloc candidate who I feel is a bad candidate who could win a seat due to low turnout is RvB's Azami Nevinyrall.  The reason he is running is that he made a $50 bet with a real life friend that he could win a seat on the CSM.  With that type of motivation, the odds of him winning a seat and then disappearing are high.  I also didn't like the pandering I saw when I actually paid attention to him at the start of the race.  I could tell he was just taking positions to make people happy so he can win his bet.  In his Cap Stable interview, I think he was a little surprised that people took a negative view of his bet.  Well, as one of those people, I hope he loses.  With the price of PLEX today, Azami made a 2 billion ISK bet.  Who doesn't like making someone lose 2 billion ISK?  But a low turnout gives Azami a better chance to win.

So while I understand people not wanting to vote because they have no one to vote "for", I don't understand those who don't vote who are "against" someone, especially a bloc candidate.  The average player voting (assuming for non-bloc candidates) dilutes the power of the organized blocs.  If enough high sec players vote for non-bloc candidates, the blocs won't have as great of representation on the CSM.  Too bad the complainers don't understand that.