Voting
This, as with all other things on this wiki, is a work in progress.
I abstain from voting.
Personal reasons to vote
Personal reasons to abstain
What to actually expect as the result of actual people voting
See Bryan Caplan's The Myth of the Rational Voter.
Objections to abstention
The "if you don't vote then you have no right to complain" objection
There are potentially several errors here.
One is the belief that the legitimacy of government is derived from the consent of the governed, coupled with the belief that voting is the method by which you render (implicit) consent to said government. Both pieces of this are incorrect--governmental legitimacy doesn't come from consent, and voting is not an act of consent. See legitimacy for more.
Another might be that voting is the only way to be politically active, the only way one can achieve political ends. With such a belief, by not voting, one abdicates any and all say in political outcomes. This is, of course, ridiculous--there are many avenues of political activism that, in all likelihood, are much more effective than voting.
Unorganized notes & links
Started with this tweet pointing to this article in reason magazine.
Followed up with this tweet linking to three things on non-voting: 1, 2, 3.
- Peter Saint-Andre on voting
- Patri's Voting Rant-2008
- Posts I don't have time to write
- One Night of Romance
- What Will Happen to California Same-Sex Marriages?
- Why Voting Matters
- HOWTO: cast a protest vote in California
- I Hope You Feel Vindicated
- Lisa's novote wiki page
- FIXME
- There is another way!
- How the Democrats Will Govern
- Epicurus and Elections
- Paradox of voting
- Don't vote
As for the utility of voting, consider that while a lone individual’s vote may not “matter” — if everyone took the economists’ view and did not vote, there would be no election at all, because no one would vote for anything.
Copyright © 2008, 2009 Edward O’Connor. CC BY-SA 3.0.