Why Bother Voting (non-political)

[Sawduster]

WHY DID WE BOTHER TO VOTE?
By Jeff Jacoby
The Boston Globe

Wednesday, November 3, 2004

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/edi...te_1099456961/

My 7-year-old and I headed to our local polling place -- the Lynch Recreation Center in Brookline, Mass. -- at 6:50 on Tuesday morning, only to find at least 40 voters already waiting in line. As Caleb shivered in the cold, I explained what would happen once we got inside.

Our first stop, I said, would be the table where the pollworkers would cross my name off the precinct voter list. Then we would be handed a ballot, on which we would mark our choices in each race. Then my name would be marked on another list, and the ballot would go into a tabulating machine.

Caleb wondered if voting was mandatory. "Do you *have* to vote?" he asked.

No, I told him, and in fact many Americans -- tens of millions of them -- wouldn't be voting in this election. I explained too that there was no mystery about how the vote would go in Massachusetts: John Kerry would take the state in a walk, and everybody standing in line knew it.

His next question was the obvious one: "So why do they all want to vote?"

Yes, I thought, why *did* we all want to vote?

After all, no single vote is ever likely to decide the outcome of a presidential election. That's true even in hotly-contested battleground states, never mind "red" or "blue" states where the outcome is a forgone conclusion. So why go to all the trouble of voting? Why stand in the cold? Wouldn't it make more sense to stay home and let everyone else stand in the cold?

For some voters, voting is simply a civic obligation -- something a responsible citizen does, like paying taxes or showing up for jury duty, because society depends on its getting done. Others genuinely enjoy the experience of voting. Election Day is meaningful to them for its communitarian power -- it brings together citizens of every rank as equals in an ancient secular ceremony. Still others, caught up in the thrill of a close election, want to be a part of the action.

Then there are tactical voters. I'm sure I wasn't the only American in line yesterday who was determined to add one more vote to his candidate's popular-vote tally regardless of that candidate's odds of winning the state's electoral votes. Bush voters in Massachusetts, like Kerry voters in Alabama, were obviously in the minority. But even for a losing candidate, more public support is better than less. The Electoral College may choose the president, but the popular vote confers an important measure of legitimacy.

Ultimately, though, I think voting is for most of us an act of faith -- faith that our government is still, despite all the deception and cynicism that corrupt modern politics, a government of, by, and for the people. That elections have not yet been turned into a meaningless farce. And that democracy remains, as Churchill said, "the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."


(Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for The Boston Globe.)

[mogebier]

I vote so I can complain.
You have no right to complain about who is in office if you didn't vote.
You have no right to complain about anything the govt. does if you just sit by and do nothing.
I like to complain.
And I approved this message.

[Sawduster]

I concur.

[jbranam39]

I vote because it is my small way of voicing my opinion. And I also like to complain.

[dcarter636]

We usually live in places where elections are often decided by a difference less than 5 votes. It only took one of those close votes to make us realize the importance of doing our part every time lest the "wrong" decision win by the absence of our 2 votes.

[randall]

>We usually live in places where elections are often decided
>by a difference less than 5 votes.


Well Bush won by ONLY some 3 MIllion votes out of a total of over 110 million or thereabouts, hardly a major victory over a basically unknown unproven candidate.
Ah well, 4 years then his butt is outta there for good.

[Sawduster]

Well, I guess the vitriolic hatred is going to continue. A simple post about civic duty has to be twisted into something partisan.

[paula]

you and your posts kill me Mogebier LOL

and I'm stealing your sig line for my sons... they'll love it.

Oh! and I like to complain too :)

[Dario]

I vote because it is the BEST way to keep our elected officials in check.

I support who ever wins...whether he/she is my choice or not...in respect for all those who voted for that person.

Dario :)
[h4][font color = "blue"] Innovate or Stagnate[/font]
[font color = "red"]"I count my blessings more than my misfortunes"[/font][/h4]

[Cody Colston]

I voted. Now let's take a break from non-politics, civic duty, inalienable rights, God-given privilege or whatchamaycallit.

That just completed 2 year campaign for the Whitehouse has me a bit jaded. And my candidate won, too!

But, I need a break.

Cody

[ol]

An amateur built the Ark
PROFESSIONALS built the Titanic[/ol]