For various reasons (none of them probably good), I’ve never voted in my life except for this one infamous time in the summer of 2016 in a primary. My cunning, scheming and unscrupulous plan spectacularly backfired, but that’s a story for some other day.
When it comes to the presidential election, the main reason I’ve never voted is because we live in a state that has cast all their electoral votes for a democrat since 1992, so since there’s never been a close presidential race in Illinois since I’ve been able to vote, I’ve just never really bothered with it. If I lived in a swing state or saw that the presidential race would be close in Illinois, I definitely would have voted by now, but that’s still not a good excuse for at least not casting a vote in the other congressional, state and local elections which one can argue are probably even more important and have a greater impact on an individual. But to be honest, I am not aware of any election I would have participated in that was decided by one vote, so again, it’s not like my vote would have actually made a difference.
I know, I know. If everyone had that kind attitude then no one would vote. In spite of my pretentious arguments for not voting I think democracy works the best when everyone votes (though I also have arguments for that as well). At the end of the day, I don’t think I have a valid excuse for not voting especially when I believe everyone should be as civically engaged and invested in shaping and forming government as they can be.
I think the best argument I recently heard for voting is that it’s just your civic duty. It’s your responsibility to society. Not that I hadn’t heard that argument before but I don’t think it ever really registered with me because I only really thought about voting as the cost and benefit to me. The cost was my time and effort. And the effort was not worth the inconsequential result my single vote would have. It just wasn’t likely beneficial enough to be worth it to me and it did not pass my personal cost/benefit analysis. But as insignificant as I think my vote may be, it is my responsibility to society to use my best judgement to vote for what I believe are the best and most fair policies, principles and officials to govern our society. It is your responsibility to society to do the same.
