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Not Voting and Proud

Don't throw away your life; throw away your vote

Brian Doherty | November 2, 2004

Today, I'm joining a near majority of eligible voters in expressing our deepest values and thoughts regarding the choices presented us in our democracy: by not voting.

Since 1976, only once have more than 55 percent of eligible voters voted—and in 1996 fewer than 50 percent did. Although many, almost most, of us do it, there are always voices attempting to shame us about not voting. If we fail to exercise the franchise, the Statue of Liberty will shed one fat tear, or P. Diddy will kill us.

But the non-voting should not skulk in the shadows. We have solid, well-nigh unimpeachable reasons for the choice we refuse to make on election day.

First, voting is futile. It would be a mathematical miracle if our vote actually decided the result of an election. And aren't we all told, when we contemplate voting for a Libertarian or a Nader, that doing so is "wasting our vote" because the third party candidate "can't win"? This means causing a victory is the only way not to waste your vote.

But the result of any national election will be the same regardless of whether, or how, any individual votes. For your vote to be decisive, you would have to be a single deciding vote in the single state whose electoral votes decide the election—so unlikely it's barely worth contemplating.

As the 2000 election showed, it's not only effectively mathematically impossible that one vote could matter: it is politically impossible as well. Imagine the recounts, margins of error, and eventual Supreme Court decision if by some miracle the presidency hung on one vote.

Thus, the act of voting has no possible direct personal benefit, even if you actually wholeheartedly support everything you expect from a candidate. But your expectations, as George W. "no nation building" Bush has proven most recently, will have little relation to what the candidate will actually do. Read the complete article