Why Should You Vote?

Voting turnout in America has been trending downward for quite some time.  It has enjoyed a modest uptick in recent years and I hope that this will continue.  I believe that it's good for people to be directly involved in their choosing their government representatives.

We are so very blessed to be able to vote!  In the history of the world the number of those who had a voice in shaping their own destiny is ridiculously low.  And that is what voting suffrage represents - the ability to shape your own destiny.

Not having had to live without the rights that we all take for granted in this fair land, it's hard to imagine what life would be like without them.  Every country is different and the reason folks turn out to vote (if they can) are all totally different as well.  Cultural, economic, technological, and institutional factors all play a part in shaping people's choice to vote or not vote.  Here in America, voting is as much a social/traditional thing as a logical one.  If you vote - your children and friends are more likely to vote, too.

I found the article about voter turnout on Wikipedia to be a very interesting (if coldly clinical) discussion:

The basic formula for determining whether someone will vote is:
   PB + D > C
Here, P is the probability that an individual's vote will affect the outcome of an election, and B is the perceived benefit that would be received if that person's favored political party or candidate were elected. D originally stood for democracy or civic duty, but today represents any social or personal gratification an individual gets from voting. C is the time, effort, and financial cost involved in voting. Since P is virtually zero in most elections, PB is also near zero, and D is thus the most important element in motivating people to vote. For a person to vote, these factors must outweigh C.

Riker and Ordeshook developed the modern understanding of D. They listed five major forms of gratification that people receive for voting:

• complying with the social obligation to vote;
• affirming one's allegiance to the political system;
• affirming a partisan preference (also known as expressive voting, or voting for a candidate to express support, not to achieve any outcome);
• affirming one's importance to the political system;
• and, for those who find politics interesting and entertaining, researching and making a decision.

All of these concepts are inherently imprecise, making it difficult to discover exactly why people choose to vote.

Why should you vote?   The answer to that must come from within.  I hope you will ponder the great blessing it is to be able to vote and then to avail yourself of the upcoming opportunity.  Vote!