Why I Don't Vote

Yes, you read the title correctly. I don't vote. At least, I don't vote right now. I won't vote on November 7. I'd like to give you the reasons why I don't vote. This should be fun.

When I got the right to vote in 1998, my pastor, youth leaders, teachers told me that I had to vote. It was a necessity. That the fate of the world depended on my slip of paper. I took that seriously. I really did. I voted. I cast my ballot, even when I didn't know who I was casting a ballot for. I voted because that was what I had to do.

Then, in 2000 something happened to me. I saw that my vote did not really count. No, really, my vote did not count. I, surprisingly enough, voted for Ralph Nader. (Or, at least, I tried to vote for Ralph Nader - but in Indiana, Nader was not allowed on the ticket for whatever reason. So, to vote for Ralph Nader required me filling out a write-in vote. This was a large hassle.) The only two people that anyone else knew was running was George W. Bush and Al Gore. Surprisingly enough, Al Gore won the election - he got the most votes. But then there was that whole debacle with Florida and it ended up that while Al Gore got the most votes, George W. Bush got the most electoral college votes. So, it did not matter who voted for Gore - GW got the most electoral college (the most of the right kind of votes) and therefore, he's the winner.

My vote did not count. And if you voted, neither did yours.

In 2004, I was faced with a different dilemna. I realized that my vote did not count. However, I still saw it as imperative to participate in this structure by voting. So, I started to do my research and try and figure out who to vote for. When I did this, I realized something. Our democracy necessarily cuts off conversation in elections. Leading up to election time, pollsters and government officials and candidates tell the general public what they should find important. These things then become important and it works out nicely. Also, the only people that are really given a voice are Republicans and Democrats - the people with the most money. Anyone else that may have an opinion or an answer or a voice is disregarded. They are not allowed in the debates, they do not get TV adds or newspaper ads. I began to realize that our democracy is set up to elect the rich and keep the rich in power.

Then I looked at the two candidates being touted. One was a white guy from Texas with lots of oil money and who used to own the Texas Rangers. The other was a guy who married a rich woman who owns Heinz Ketchup. Yes, it was the battle of the white, Ivy league rich guys. And the answers being proposed by these guys were answers and solutions to problems that only mattered to them. They were only talking about those things that they thought could get them elected. And, they were not allowing other people to participate.

Then I got it. Our democracy necessarily shuts people out. People are excluded just because they are not the right kind of people or do not belong to the right party.

(People will argue that this is not really a democracy, but a republic. Ok, fine. But, it still operates under the notion that people are democratically elected).

At this point I started to think about what I should do. I mean, I had to vote. Then I realized that in a true democracy people should willfully choose not to vote. I realized that everyone refused to participate in the system, the system would have to reform, right? It's obviously corrupt and going nowhere, doing very little good, so I don't participate.

I have made a democratic choice to cast a (non)vote in favor of reform and dialogue. I refuse to continue to allow the system to exclude people and ideas and to not count my vote.

Something I found ironic after the 2004 election was that media outlets touted the great American way of going to the polls for the highest voter turnout in decades. The turnout was right around 60% of registered voters. That means 40% did not participate for whatever reason. No one said this. But there is a real problem here. When 40% of American voters do not want to participate in the system, shouldn't the system begin asking why. Not ours - we applaud ourselves for getting 60% out to the polls - in record numbers.