What's the use of voting if I know my single vote will not change the election of anyone?

Question

Alot of people are using the argument that if I DON'T vote, I have no right to complain. I never complain about politics - I could care less about arguing about politics. I still do not see a rational reason why I should vote other than out of respect for those who fought for the right to vote. I respect those people but why do I need to personify that respect by actually going to a community center to vote???

Answer 1

If you don't vote and things get worse or go in a direction that you disagree with, you have NO REASON OR RIGHT to complain.

Answer 2

Because that is what living in a democracy is about. You going through the same thing as 300 million other people. What you think matters. What you do matters. Who you vote for matters ... because there are ten thousand other people right now thinking the exact same thing you are ... "why should I vote?" If you don't vote, then they won't either.

Or to put it another way ... there are people counting on you thinking that ... counting on you to say "I don't matter." The more people who think like that, the more they win.

And BTW, voting isn't the only thing. It's thinking about it. It's the process of reaching the decision. It's the very thought of individuals like you thinking about who and what you vote for, that scares the bejeezus out of politicians. The more each and every one of us *thinks* the more it scares them ... and the more they have to do the right thing.

So, don't vote if you're not interested. But dammit, I hope you get interested. We need interested thinkers ... the slow decline of them is what is allowing the bad guys to win.

Answer 3

If you don't think one vote will make a difference, convince everyone you know to join you. Look at it the other way, if you don;t cast your own vote, you have voted for "Whoever the 25% who actually vote want." To quote a few hundred others "If you don't vote, you have not right to complain." It has been said that we get the government we ask for. Voting is how you ask.

Answer 4

Simply out of respect for all the people who died and fought for your right to vote.

Also, because if you don't, you have no right to complain about the politicians who are in office. So, for example, you can't say "All the people who are in office are corrupt, that's why I don't vote." Because if 1,000 people (or however many) who think like you had voted the other way, it would have changed the election.

Answer 5

Think of it this way. There were approximately 100 million people who agreed with you on this point and didn't exercise their right to vote in the last election. What if all of them had gone to vote in the last election? We may have had a far different outcome, in either direction. I certainly understand your reasoning though. But, I look at it as my only voice in the grand scheme of things. It may be small, but it is counted.

Answer 6

I don't vote, but not for the reason that "my single vote will not change the election of anyone." Rather, my reason for not voting was indirectly described by Judge Learned Hand, in his famous book, "The Bill of Rights," ...

"Each one of us must in the end choose for himself how far he would like to leave our collective fate to the wayward vagaries of popular assemblies. No one can fail to recognize the perils to which the last forty years have exposed such governments. ... For myself, it would be most irksome to be ruled by a bevy of Platonic Guardians, even if I knew how to choose them, which I assuredly do not. If they were in charge, I should miss the stimulus of living in a society where I have, at least theoretically, some part in the direction of public affairs. Of course I know how illusory would be the belief that my vote determined anything; but nevertheless when I go to the polls I have a satisfaction in the sense that we are all engaged in a common venture."

The U.S. Supreme Court is behaving like a bevy of Platonic Guardians. They steal elections and flush the people's moral values down the toilet. They have robbed from me the reason for voting -- that "satisafaction ... that we are all engaged in a common venture."

Answer 7

There was a vote for sherrif in my county back in the 90's (91-94 somewhere in there) after 3 recounts it was a dead tie. The election was decided by a coin flip. So if one more person would have voted they could have changed the whole thing.

Answer 8

Because if everyone who thinks that there vote won't count gets up and votes, it will make a difference.

Americans take for granted what they have. We complain about our government, but we don't vote. We agree with trying to install democracy in other nations, but we don't participate in our democratic process.

Your vote does count. And if you don't vote, you have no right to complain about the mess that our country is in.

Get out and vote. There is no excuse not to.

Answer 9

What if everybody thinks that? Because guess what, they do. Voting is a tool, and if everybody would stop thinking they won't make a difference, we would probably see very different election results. Most elections could be totally changed if everyone who didn't vote voted. If you don't offer your vote, you aren't making a difference that could change an election.

Answer 10

For starters, if you didn't vote, you can't complain. Votes DO count, though if one person decides to stay home for election day, the outcome would not have changed if he had voted. Just vote.