I've always been a proponent that if you don't vote, you don't get the right to bitch about how things are going. Just because you were too lazy to walk out the door on election day doesn't mean everyone else should care what you have to say. You neglect to exercise a right and freedom in a democracy that people across the world are still fighting for and often getting imprisoned or killed for, that's your problem you turd.
Eh. I don't think it always just has to do with being "too lazy". Depending on the situation, voting might not be feasible for everyone.
THAT BEING SAID, I HAVE NO IDEA HOW EASY/DIFFICULT IT WAS TO REGISTER TO VOTE IN THIS PARTICULAR REFERENDUM -- so maybe that really is a non-issue.
But, at least using the US primaries as an example, I can say that it's not always just an issue of laziness.
Like, the primaries for New York State (where I live) happened last April. But if you wanted to vote in the Democratic/Republican primaries, you would've needed to register as a member of that party
last November. I knew plenty of Bernie-supporters who
wanted to vote in the Democratic primary, but couldn't because they were registered as independents, and didn't even know about Bernie --
or know that they needed to register as Democrats so far ahead of time -- until long after the deadline had passed.
And then there's also the issue of location. I was in college at the time, but I was registered to vote in my hometown, and it wouldn't have been feasible to travel there on election day. Now, of course, there are absentee ballots -- which are precisely the reason why I was able to vote -- but, it took me a fair amount of effort just to figure out how to properly sign up for an absentee ballot. And even though
I was diligent enough to plan to be able to vote months ahead of schedule, I can understand why some people might not have thought to do that, and might've
tried to register for absentee voting only to realize they were too late.
Or, you know, there might've been people who didn't even know that absentee voting was a thing in the first place. It's not like I was ever taught how to do any of this stuff in school (which is a whole other issue), I had to figure it all out for myself. >_> And, yes, you could make the argument that a person should be responsible for figuring this stuff out on their own, but, you know, some people are just
busy. Some people are struggling to juggle school and a job among other things and, well, if they don't have time to plan out how they're going to be able to vote
months in advance then, well, I can't blame them. >_> Voting isn't always as easy as just making sure to take time out of your day to get to a poll when the election rolls around (although I encountered many people who
thought it would be that easy, only to be turned down at the polls because they hadn't registered properly -- because they didn't know that they
needed to do anything else).
So then, when the New York primaries were finished, and they announced that Hillary won, there were plenty of Bernie-supporters who were, understandably, expressing their disappointment. And the overwhelming response was "well then you should've gone out and voted for him you lazy fucks" -- even though the majority of disappointed commenters seemed to be people that, if they hadn't voted for him, had at least
attempted to vote for him but just
couldn't for whatever reason. Again, you could argue that they wouldn't have run into problems if they had just been more diligent about it, but, if they aren't aware of what the requirements are ahead of time, and are so busy juggling life that researching all of this just isn't on their mind then, well, I can at least sympathize with their situation. >_> I'd hate to be the person who
thought that they were being diligent and on-top-of things by looking up how to vote properly 4-5 months in advance, only for them to realize that they were registered as an independent and that they just barely missed the deadline for changing it. >_>
BUT AGAIN, I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT PEOPLE HAD TO DO TO VOTE IN THE BREXIT REFERENDUM. MAYBE IT WAS EASY AS BALLS FOR ALL I KNOW. But, in general, I really don't like the sentiment of "people who didn't vote shouldn't be allowed to complain because it's their fault they didn't get off their lazy ass and do it". Poor voter turnout among younger people is a big problem in the US, as well, and I think the issue might be a bit more complicated than simply "young people these days are too lazy to complain". >_>