# Voting is useless! **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [June 26, 2013, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-is-useless/661956 "2013-06-26T14:15:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-is-useless/661956/21 "2013-06-27T10:25:03Z")
Wouldn’t that be “leaf **s** fan”? Serious question. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-is-useless/661956/22 "2013-06-27T11:12:39Z")
My basic philosophy is that voting is your chance to show who you support, to have your inpyt into the system. It hardly matters if they win or not. It is voting for someone you don’t like because you don’t want to “throw away your vote” that is, ironically, throwing away your vote. It then follows that if you refuse to vote, you really have fuck-all to say about the resulting system. If you refuse to have your say (vote), you really have no say (opinion). ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-is-useless/661956/23 "2013-06-27T11:18:33Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > My one single vote has never swayed an election in my lifetime. > > However, if everyone thought this way then no one would vote. Unfortunately people like you (the OP) do in fact seem to think this way. It baffles me why one would not vote, and as time goes on - because of this attitude - we are seeing increasinly poor voter participation at the polls. Wait, why? If your vote doesn’t sway an election, then why does it baffle you when one won’t vote? People act when they believe that the benefit they get from acting outweighs the cost of the action. Voting has a cost. You have to become informed on the issues and candidates, you have to take time out of your day to cast a ballot when you could be working/watching tv/eating/whatever, and so on. And voting doesn’t have an obvious benefit. (whether you vote or not, as you said, won’t make a difference in the results.) For you, it seems like, the benefit of feeling like you’re “part of the system” seems to be sufficient to cover the cost of voting. But why does it surprise you that other people might not see it that way. Really, it seems to me it makes a lot more sense not to vote than to vote, given the above (real costs, not much in the way of benefits.) ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-is-useless/661956/24 "2013-06-27T12:05:17Z")
The national government isn’t something for us regular folks to influence. It’s something to cope with, or be entertained by. It’s a gentlemen’s duel between different sectors of capital. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-is-useless/661956/25 "2013-06-27T12:35:53Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Wait, why? If your vote doesn’t sway an election, then why does it baffle you when one won’t vote? > > People act when they believe that the benefit they get from acting outweighs the cost of the action. Voting has a cost. You have to become informed on the issues and candidates, you have to take time out of your day to cast a ballot when you could be working/watching tv/eating/whatever, and so on. And voting doesn’t have an obvious benefit. (whether you vote or not, as you said, won’t make a difference in the results.) > > For you, it seems like, the benefit of feeling like you’re “part of the system” seems to be sufficient to cover the cost of voting. But why does it surprise you that other people might not see it that way. > > Really, it seems to me it makes a lot more sense not to vote than to vote, given the above (real costs, not much in the way of benefits.) Fine, don’t vote then. Voting has no cost to me. I read the news. I listen to talk radio during my commute. I watch the evening news on TV. I’m always aware of the issues. I vote on my way home from work, and in Canada we don’t have ridiculous wait times at the polling stations. I’m in and out in 10 minutes. It’s my obligation as a citizen and a taxpayer to vote. It’s fast, easy, and I contribute. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-is-useless/661956/26 "2013-06-27T12:42:12Z")
> [@marshmallow](#): > > The national government isn’t something for us regular folks to influence. It’s something to cope with, or be entertained by. It’s a gentlemen’s duel between different sectors of capital. I wonder where you reside, although it doesn’t really matter because what you say is true of all the modern democracies. A vote is just a choice of which sector of big business you wish to enrich. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-is-useless/661956/27 "2013-06-27T13:00:30Z")
On one particular issue- gun control- my experience has been mixed. On the one hand I live in a voting district that is solidly Democrat and, due to inner city crime concerns, solidly pro-gun control. Practically, my vote will never, ever count on that issue. On the other hand when the state legislature was considering restrictive new gun laws, I was one of a large number of people who rallied at the state capitol to show our opposition to the proposed laws. And maybe that made a difference because the bill was voted down. The moral of the story? If you actually care about something, do more than vote. Get involved. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-is-useless/661956/28 "2013-06-27T14:00:55Z")
Nitpick: it’s not useless, but it is irrational. [E](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_voting)[ven wikipedia says so](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_voting). I’d do it anyway if I lived in a swing state, but since being of voting age I’ve always lived in heavily-democratic states. Voting costs me time and money that I don’t see the point of expending–what was the point of voting for Obama when I lived in Illinois in 2008? And now I’m in New York, which hasn’t gone Republican since 1984 (and Reagan [swept every state except Minnesota](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1984) that year). ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-is-useless/661956/29 "2013-06-27T14:32:39Z")
I don’t think you understand the whole purpose of voting. Voting isn’t supposed to ensure that every persons wishes and desires are implemented by their leaders. It is to provide a non-violent mechanism for regime change. In all forms of governments, politicians must address, on some level, the needs of the people they govern. Representative democracies and republics typically require politicians to keep their constituents satisfied only to the point where they won’t vote them out of office. It’s imperfect, but it is considered far superior to more traditional systems where politicians had to satisfy their constituents to the point where they risk life and limb to violently rise up and kill their leaders. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-is-useless/661956/30 "2013-06-27T22:23:14Z")
The OP, he of squishy presentation and suspect username, has made no effort to defend his thesis. No other posters are even discussing his postion among themselves. We don’t really need the clutter. This thread is closed. [/Moderating] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-is-useless/661956.md?page=1)