Topic: Voting, Matches 26 quotes.

Force cannot be used in the interests of freedom—except for self-defense and rebellion against slavery. This holds true whether the force is applied by a majority or a minority. It holds true whether the force is applied by a robber with a pistol or by a representative of the majority of the people who have voted to force other persons to do what the majority considers “best for them.” The theory now held in this country that the votes of the majority automatically insure freedom is incorrect. It is now leading us to our own destruction. Might has never made right. It never will.

This is not to deny that a republic or representative democracy is the most desirable form of government we have yet discovered. It is not to deny that freedom is safer in the hands of the many than in the hands of the few. But it is to deny that freedom is automatically safe just because the franchise has become widespread in America; just because we call ourselves “a democracy.” It requires more than a vote to preserve liberty; it requires understanding on the part of the voters; it requires the knowledge that all governmental decrees and actions must be grounded on moral and natural law if they are to benefit the people.

Source: Dean Russell
What Can I Do?, Essays on Liberty, volume 3

Topics: Force; Freedom; Voting

When To Vote?

If voting could really be used to determine right from wrong—and what we should all be forced or forbidden to do—we could use it to settle the religious question once and for all. We could vote democratically to decide which religion we shall all be compelled to follow. (It always amuses me to observe how some of the most rabid of the social democrats back away from that one; and on occasion, I have been known to resort to the low trick of taunting the worst of them with this question: “What’s the matter—don’t you believe in democracy and the right to vote anymore?”)

Perhaps James Madison, in the tenth Federalist Paper, best answered this general question on voting and democracy. “Measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.”

That’s why our Founding Fathers deliberately established a Republic with heavy checks and balances against popular and hasty actions, instead of a Democracy in which the people are encouraged to believe that they have the “right” to vote on anything and everything. It’s too bad that their plan is being so constantly eroded away.

Source: Dean Russell
Legal But Immoral, Essays on Liberty, Volume IX

Topics: Democracy; Republic; Voting

However, above all else, strive to support good and conscientious candidates of either party who are aware of the great dangers inherent in communism and who are truly dedicated to the Constitution in the tradition of our founding fathers. They should also pledge their sincere fealty to our way of liberty—a liberty which aims at the preservation of both personal and property rights. Study the issues, analyze the candidates on these grounds, and then exercise your franchise as free men and women. Never be found guilty of exchanging your birthright for a mess of pottage!

Source: President David O. McKay
General Conference, October 1962

Topics: Citizenship; Voting

Just a word about our obligation as citizens:

When the Apostle Paul was being bound with thongs for a scourging, he said to the centurion that stood by, “Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned?”

Then the chief captain came and said to Paul: “Tell me, art thou a Roman?” and Paul answered that he was. “And the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this freedom.”

I fancy that Paul straightened up when he said: “But I was free born!” (See Acts 22:25-28.)

I wonder if we freeborn Americans appreciate what it is to have the right to vote, to express by our vote our choice of those who are to rule over us. No, thank heaven, not to rule over us—to serve us in the service of the government. For you, the electorate, are the rulers in this great Republic.

Those who have taken out their citizenship I think appreciate it even more than some of us who have it by birth.

We have an election in November, in which you have the right to state who will fill the offices that are now to be filled in the nation, in the state, and in our local affairs. We ask, we plead that every member of the Church go to the polls in November and cast your vote for the men and women whom you wish to occupy the offices named. Now you choose, and choose wisely and prayerfully, but cast your vote.

Source: President David O. McKay
General Conference, October 1956

Topics: Citizenship; Voting

I think a good place to start is always at home. Each one of us should resolve that we in and of ourselves will develop qualities of leadership and of honesty and of integrity and of justice and equity. We should be willing to take these principles, these characteristics, the ability which we thus create within ourselves, and give ourselves to the benefit of our city and of our county and of our state and of our nation.

This year there will probably be no more than fifty percent of the qualified voters in this great nation who will exercise their franchise. The officers who may be elected in the great elections to be held this year will be elected by minorities and will not represent the vote or the will of the majority. You know there are two kinds of offenses in the world—offenses of commission and offenses of omission. We sometimes do things that we should not do, and then again, we do not do some things that we should. I hope that Latter-day Saints will not permit themselves, political- wise, to fall into this latter category and be classed among those who give offense because they fail to do that which they should do. I would like to know if a reason exists that would justify a Latter-day Saint in not exercising his franchise for the party and the man of his own choice.

No political party is justified to continue in existence unless it clearly states the principles which it advocates, the platform upon which its candidates stand, and then with integrity, when and if elected, carry out those principles and live up to that platform. Except that be the case, we as Latter-day Saints should not align ourselves to any party, because we do not have the basis upon which we can make an intelligent decision. We must know what they stand for before we can favor them with our vote. I do not ask you, my brethren and sisters, to go to the polls and just vote, important as that is; but that when you vote, you vote intelligently for those principles and those things and those men which will give to you the kind of government you want, the kind of environment that you desire for yourself and for your posterity.

Source: Elder Henry D. Moyle
General Conference, April 1952

Topics: Morality; Politics; Voting

We must have leadership in this nation whose voice will be clear; whose virtue, clarity, and certainty will give us the assurance that the course the government pursued under their leadership is right. Then we can put our whole heart and soul back of our government and sustain those who preside in government and feel toward them even as we do toward those who have been divinely chosen to guide and direct the affairs of the Church.

I hope and pray, my brethren and sisters, that we will not feel that politics has become so degraded that we are too good to participate. If any of us believe politics to be in that kind of state, we need only to enter into politics, go into it with our honesty and our integrity and our devotion to truth and to righteousness, and the standards will be raised. We cannot expect in this country a better government than the leaders are good, and so if we want a good government we must have good leaders. Let us participate in our mass meetings, in our party organization meetings, in our conventions; then when we go to the polls, we may have somebody worthy of our vote on our tickets.

May the Lord bless us to uphold and sustain the great Constitution of this nation and to maintain ourselves pure and unspotted from the sins of the world in all of our undertakings, and call down the blessings of our Heavenly Father upon us and upon our neighbors.

Source: Elder Henry D. Moyle
General Conference, April 1952

Topics: Leadership; Voting

Some of the Privileges of Citizenship

Some time ago I was in court where there were a number of people being examined as to their qualifications to become citizens of this great country of ours. The judge asked one of the men this question: “What can you receive as a citizen of this country that you cannot receive without being a citizen?” As an alien, a man could reside in our country, could move about in freedom from place to place, could have the advantages of our schools, could have police protection for himself and family and his business, irrespective of the fact that he was not a citizen. But with all these privileges, he was always an alien, having no part in the feeling and enthusiasm and love of country that belong to us as citizens. One all-important thing that he was unable to enjoy was the right of suffrage—the right to vote and to participate in the government, in its laws and regulations. He could not go out and represent or speak officially for the country or for the officers who might be elected. Therefore, he failed to have one of the great things we value so much.

Source: Elder John H. Taylor
General Conference, April 1945

Topics: Citizenship; Voting

Power In The Priesthood

We have the Priesthood of Almighty God, and if we are righteous and magnify it, and exercise it, there is no limit to what we can accomplish in the way of good, no matter how great are the mere numbers arrayed against us.

I pray that we may magnify the Priesthood, that we may have vision, that we may not be led astray by mere names, that we shall be able intelligently to examine governmental procedures, and that bringing our judgment to the matter of government, we shall have wisdom and unusual discernment in selecting men for office who will stand for government that is compatible with the gospel.

I have not heard of it, but I hope that in some of our international conferences the men who are our leaders are big enough to get down on their knees and ask for divine guidance. I have not heard that it was done at Casablanca; I have not heard that it was done at Washington; I have not heard that it was done in Quebec. It may have been. I hope it was. But when we can have men who realize that the solution to our problems must be in terms of the word of the Lord, then shall we have just government; then can we fight a just battle.

Source: Elder Joseph F. Smith
General Conference, October 1943

Topics: Christianity; Leadership; Responsibility; Voting

I think the business men are largely to blame for these chaotic conditions. The Lord says: “Search out good and wise men”—not of any party; not of any church, but search out these good men and put them in charge of our civil affairs. But if you ask a business man to run for office, he becomes a Pharisee, a political Pharisee. He says: “I don’t like to enter into the slime of politics.” But who has made it a slime? The men who were unworthy to hold office. Business men say: “We can’t be elected.” Well, when, in the name of heaven, will you be any stronger? Why not enter the conflict? There ought to be common ground where good and wise men may stand, and their influence will be felt at headquarters in Washington.

Source: Elder Charles A. Callis
General Conference, October 1941

Topics: Politics; Voting

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