An African Election: Rhetoric Around Voting In Close Elections

With polls saying that President Obama and presidential hopeful Mitt Romney are in a dead heat–and the latest Electoral College count favoring the current president–we’re noticing the bubbling of liberal and other left-leaning people saying that they’re so dissatisfied with Obama’s performance that they’re not going to vote for him but are planning to “vote with their conscience.” Others say that, by doing so, the “conscientious objecting” voters are essentially throwing the election to Romney. This recalls similar rhetoric in the 2000 election, when those who supported then-presidential candidate Al Gore said his loss wouldn’t have been so contested if the Ralph Nader supporters didn’t “throw their vote away” on the third-party candidate.

Who’s right? And how did Ghanaians handle their own close election in 2008? And what can USians learn from Ghanaian voters?

Racialicious, National Black Programming Consortium’s AfroPoP.TV, and guest tweeters Scot Nakagawa (@nakagawascot) and Kenyon Farrow (@kenyonfarrow) will discuss these very issues on Twitter tonight at 7:30PM.

If you haven’t checked out Jarreth Merz’s An African Election, it’s available on YouTube until 11/1. Check out the film, and join the tweetversation!