What a Waste

This past week was quite hectic with a few nights of getting home later than usual so I did not take the dog out on her regular long walk on Wednesday or Thursday.  When I walk the dog the long route, we pass by the mailbox, and I pick up mail.  Since we didn't go by on those two days and since it's not conveniently located, I didn't pick up Wednesday's or Thursday's mail until we walked by Friday after work.  With the midterm elections quickly (thankfully) approaching, we are inundated with campaign ads both on TV and through the mail.  The junk mail is bad enough when we're not in election season, but when we are it's not a good idea to skip mail pick up.  It doesn't seem so bad when it's picked up and tossed out on a daily bases.  After three days accumulation, it's appalling.

There are 21, mostly full color, campaign mailers in this picture.  The majority of them are the size of a regular sheet of paper or larger and all are double sided or have several pages.  A few are different ads for the same candidate or proposition.  I know that there has to be some kind of positive result for candidates to keep sending these out, along with paying the expense of them, but I feel like they are really a big waste of money and paper. As a fairly knowledgable voter, these do absolutely nothing to sway my vote (and even less so since I already voted last week) and really only further irritate me on the waste of money that is a political campaign.  I don't know if junk mail like this is helpful to the undecided voter in the internet age.  I wish they'd eliminate it as it seems like such a waste.  What's your take on campaign mail?  Does is sway you?