Why You Must Vote

It's almost Wednesday of the second week of October. In most states, deadlines for voter registration have passed. I hope, therefore, that for a lot of you I'm not too late in writing this post.

In 2004, voter turnout was the largest that it ever was. Considering only those who were eligible to vote (by population), slightly over 60% actually turned out to vote. George W. Bush won with an over 2 million person majority, but many would argue that the election was decided in Ohio, where about 50,000 voters would have changed the outcome by voting differently, or 100,000 would have changed it by getting out to vote at all.

But for appropriate comparisons, certainly 2000 would be a more similar year. Without an incumbent, it was a very different fight. It was also a historical election, only the second time the electoral and popular votes disagreed. In that year, voter turnout was a mere 54%. President Bush was elected without a popular majority, and the state many agree decided the election, Florida, was won with just over a 500 vote lead.

In that election, neither candidate got much more than 50,000,000 votes. There are over 300,000,000 people in this country. Its not hard math to see that only one in six people actually voted for the guy who won. In 2004, that ratio was up to one in 5.

I could, but won't, include an exhaustive list of close elections. My point is, in this election, just like in any other, every vote counts.

In this election, most people are going to cast a ballot for Barack Obama or for John McCain, but if history repeats itself, and it usually does, and even greater number of people will vote for nobody at all. In what many would call history's greatest republic, that breaks my heart.

I'm going to float a hypothetical, one which I regret not having put more work and writing into. But I must point out to you that if everyone who chose not to vote for a major candidate had, by some strange coincidence, voted for one third party candidate instead of abstaining, we would no longer have a "major party" president.

I'll put this more clearly. In 2004, about 62 million individuals voted for George W. Bush. That same year, about 69 million voted for absolutely nobody. I don't call it even possible, but if those 69 million had gotten up to go to the ballot, they together could have elected absolutely anyone. They could have elected James Dobson. They could have elected Ralph Nader. They could have elected Ron Paul, or Bob Barr, or Mickey Mouse (though I'm not sure who would actually serve that presidency).

I'm certainly not going to tell you who to vote for, at least not on this blog. But I implore you, vote. If you find yourself closely aligned with a major party candidate, vote for him! But if you don't, there are literally dozens of third party candidates throughout the country. Contact your local election board for a copy of the ballot list, and research the statements of every one of those candidates.

You may say to me, "I don't want to throw my vote away on a third party." First off, if you don't vote, you certainly throw your vote away. Heck, if you vote for a candidate in a non-battleground state where he has no chance of winning those electoral votes, you may be throwing away your vote. But if you and others get out an vote for third parties, you do a few great things for this country.

First, by voting for third parties, you are helping to raise awareness of the inadequacies of the two-party system. You are making a public political statement. Even if your candidate doesn't win right now (though, especially if your voting for a lower office, there's a real possibility that he or she might because of your vote) people will notice, and they themselves will be encouraged by the show of support.

Secondly, your vote is a kind of petition. The constitution and the law in general provides no special status to the two predominant parties. Rather, the party system is supported by some fairly generic conditions. When a third party reaches a certain percentage of votes, it becomes eligible for the same rights and priveleges that the major parties enjoy, such as federal financing and the laws that regulate campaigning.

Personally, I happen to have found a major party candidate in this election whom I support, and who I hope will win. But I won't be voting for him. Instead, I've joined with a supporter of the opposite candidate, and we will together vote for third party candidates. Our choice won't impact the outcome of the election, since we're equally subtracting from both major parties, but we will benefit the third party and the country itself.

I apologize for the length of this post. I hope I've made it clear that everyone should vote. I could go on about this for quite some time, so I'm going to try and take a break from it for a few minutes.