The people who cast the votes don't decide an election, the people who count the votes do.
Joseph StalinRead
I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this - who will count the votes, and how.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The process of counting votes is more critical than who casts them.
This quote emphasizes the significance of the vote-counting process in elections, suggesting that the integrity of the counting can influence the outcome more than voter participation itself. It brings attention to the power dynamics involved in determining the results of an election, highlighting the importance of transparency and fairness in the electoral process.
Themes
VotesCountingElectionPowerIntegrity
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate on election reforms, this quote can illustrate the need for transparent vote counting.
More from Joseph Stalin
All quotes →If any foreign minister begins to defend to the death a 'peace conference,' you can be sure his government has already placed its orders for new battleships and airplanes.
Joseph StalinRead
The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.
Joseph StalinRead
Print is the sharpest and the strongest weapon of our party.
Joseph StalinRead
You cannot make a revolution with silk gloves.
Joseph StalinRead
It takes a brave man to be a coward in the Red Army.
Joseph StalinRead
Similar quotes
My view of democratic socialism builds on the success of many other countries around the world that have done a far better job than we have in protecting the needs of their working families, their elderly citizens, the children, the sick and the poor.
Bernie SandersRead
From the U.S. point of view, negotiations are, in effect, a way for Israel to continue its policies of systematically taking over whatever it wants in the West Bank, maintaining the brutal siege on Gaza, separating Gaza from the West Bank and, of course, occupying the Syrian Golan heights, all with full U.S. support.
Noam ChomskyRead
The abortion cases produced an enormous amount of mail to my chambers, vastly more than to the other chambers, I am sure. I sometimes thought there wasn't a woman in the United States who didn't write me a letter on one side or the other of that issue.
Sandra Day O'ConnorRead
Karl Rove thinks we shouldn’t have Hillary Clinton in the White House because she fell and hit her head a couple years ago, spent three days in the hospital, and maybe she has brain damage. You know, I don’t recall the Republicans being this concerned with mental fitness during the years when Reagan was talking to house plants in the White House.
Bill MaherRead
The powers know that the people at large are like children whose despair, sorrow, and tears can be turned into joy with a little toy. ... An army and navy represents the people's toys.
Emma GoldmanRead
Election days come and go. But the struggle of the people to create a government which represents all of us and not just the one percent - a government based on the principles of economic, social, racial and environmental justice - that struggle continues.
Bernie SandersRead