It's so that the Bloods and the Crips will know which side to vote for.

But what to do about people who are voting with a blank ballot?

Representatives voted on behalf of their districts powerful interests.

Did they know who they were voting against and what the impact was?

Perhaps the Harvard students were simply voting with their own (future) wallets in mind.

Basically they went to the ballot boxes to tell that they have nobody to vote for.

They can commit not to expropriate creditors, since the latter will vote them out of office if they do.

At the moment, people applaud sustainable growth, but they don t vote for what it means in practice.

Let Iranians vote for whoever they want to, and if they're taking the streets and are going bring down Ahmadinajhad let them do it themselves.

That's actually not so bad. If you go back to the Carter and even Reagan administrations, they were rating the other party 43, 45. It's not terrible.

Instead, they lie and say that they will vote for the black candidate when, in fact, they have no intention of doing so.

Every single year, for at least a decade or more, 60,000 of them have been voting with their feet, crossing, moving north and inhabiting this desolate terrain.

All polls suggest that, given the choice in a free, fair, and well organized referendum, southerners will vote overwhelmingly for independence.

Although Hamas is boycotting the election, many Hamas sympathizers will vote for the candidate most committed to defending the Palestinians core demands.

And the French and voters elsewhere in Europe vote for far right parties the most when the far left is weakest.

Thanks to those persistent people who have been voting every day of the past week, Belgrade is now ahead of such cities as Amsterdam, Athens, Tokyo, Toronto, Barcelona and Kiev.

They all vote at the same time, for the same institution. But what does an Italian know or care, for that matter about British politics?

Indeed, Russia s elites know that things are going wrong, and are voting the only way they can with their feet and by bank transfer, moving their families and their wealth out of the country.

While Chinese officials have announced their intention of letting the exchange rate move, only time will tell whether their talk is accompanied by deeds. In the meantime, manufacturing workers are voting with their feet and their picket lines.

Our voters cannot stroll in one direction during one poll, and in the opposite direction the next time they vote, without worrying about falling over the edge.

Only 15 would vote for Hamas MP s or a Hamas presidential candidate, compared to 55 for Fatah candidates.

People vote for all kinds of parties, from the far right all the way to the left, so long as they are convinced that the parties will deal with their social concerns and grievances.

So the results strongly suggest that if all Americans were given a chance to vote on keeping pregnant pigs and calves in such tight confinement, the majority would vote no.

It was left to his spinners to explain, as The Economist put it, that this was necessary rubbish, concocted to persuade the fanatics who vote in the Republican primaries.

We have to define the sustainability of growth in ways that create an attractive narrative for our citizens. At the moment, people applaud sustainable growth, but they don t vote for what it means in practice.

First, farming is geographically concentrated and farmers vote on agricultural policy above everything else, greatly enhancing the power of their votes something that few, if any, urban consumers do.

Where they can vote, so the argument goes, Muslim traditionalists would rather vote for a conservative party, even if it has Catholic roots, than for a secular left wing party perceived as advocating loose morals.

LONDON Since I believe that the Scots are sensible, I think that they will vote no this week to independence. But, whichever way the vote goes, the spectacular rise of nationalism, in Scotland and elsewhere in Europe, is a symptom of a diseased political mainstream.

Precisely for this reason, political opportunists in the US have long used the race card to discredit welfare and redistribution, from the Jim Crow system that segregated blacks in the South before 1964 to the infamous Reagan era charge about black welfare queens who drive Cadillacs. Right wing white politicians, predisposed against taxes and redistribution, use the race issue to secure the votes of poor whites, who otherwise might vote differently on purely economic grounds.

Reforms to alter the boundaries of Congressional districts to make them more competitive would help alleviate this problem, but few incumbent Congressmen will vote for changes that might increase their risk of defeat.

While Chinese officials have announced their intention of letting the exchange rate move, only time will tell whether their talk is accompanied by deeds. In the meantime, manufacturing workers are voting with their feet and their picket lines.

The idea behind the Bradley effect is that white voters won t reveal their prejudices to pollsters. Instead, they lie and say that they will vote for the black candidate when, in fact, they have no intention of doing so.

Do they vote, week after week, against tax cuts that would help 100 million Americans, while the economy deteriorates around them? Or do they embrace a deal that cuts taxes and tax rates relative to where they would be otherwise?

When they get into the polling booth in November, will Americans vote on culture wars issues sex and guns or on the basis of whether they can afford to pay their mortgages?

When they get into the polling booth in November, will Americans vote on culture wars issues sex and guns or on the basis of whether they can afford to pay their mortgages?

Typically, an interest group lobbies Congress, blandishing persuasive arguments, campaign contributions, and other support often enough members or enough key members come to see the merit of the group s point of view (or at least vote as if they do).