Does My Vote Matter?

Recommend (1) Comments (2)

While everyone wants to believe that each person’s vote matters, the sad truth is that increasingly an individual vote doesn’t matter.   I say this reluctantly, and as someone who spent years as a young political activist fighting for change in our political system.

I am not saying an individual can’t make a difference, just the opposite. Individuals can change the world.   In the 1990’s me and a friend launched a political initiative called Lead…or Leave that became one of the largest political movements for young people in America since the 1960’s. This is about voting, and increasingly when it comes to national elections – especially the Presidential election -- the mere act of casting a vote has less and less value.   There are several big, and disturbing, reasons for this.  

• The stranglehold that the two parties have on the political process in America, and their mutual interest in keeping power narrows the range of options available to voters…almost a self selecting process that leaves most voters feeling like a national election for President is almost a choice between the lesser of two evils.

• The fact that given limited realistic – or viable – candidate options, by exercising your obligation to vote many voters are essentially validating a candidate they don’t fully support, a scenario in which their votes then become “claimed” by the candidate who gets them as proof of support for subsequent policies and actions.

• Finally, and perhaps most disturbingly, because of the structure of the Presidential election, and the outdated and only marginally democratic process of awarding delegates – in both the primaries and the general election – many votes simply don’t really count. They may be cast and technically counted, but they have limited or no impact on the outcome of the election.

• It’s a controversial position to suggest that the age old American premises that every vote counts, and that unless you vote – regardless of the quality of the candidates – you are weakening our democracy and deserve whatever leadership you get.   But these are no longer absolutes.   Simply voting because you are supposed to may in fact just be propping up a broken, corrupted, special interest and major political party driven political system, and ensuring the seemingly never ending gridlock in Washington and a failure on the part of our national political leadership to adequately address the major problems facing this country.

For the first time in our history, it may be time for voters to in mass boycott a national election, and refuse to vote until they get better, less special and party interest driven candidates, and a process that is more supportive of alternative candidates to the two major parties …as well as a more direct democratic election process.