Editor’s Note: This letter is in response to Anayo Ordu’s Tuesday column, “Voter apathy is absolutely pathetic.”
I disagree, with every fiber of my being, with every statement that you made in your recent column about voter apathy.
Your claim is that (a) someone fought for my right to vote, therefore, (b) I am indebted to that person, and (c) I must repay that debt by voting. Let me present a couple of parallels. You do realize that voting is not the only right we may exercise, don’t you? For instance, I have the right to own a gun. So can’t we apply the same logic you used? (a) Someone fought for my right to own a gun, therefore (b) I am indebted to that person and (c) I must repay that debt by owning a gun. Your rejoinder will be that owning guns and voting are two different issues, but that doesn’t refute the logic (your logic) that I used. They’re different issues, but they are both rights, so why do I get the feeling that you wouldn’t share the same sentiment you do about exercising gun ownership rights as you do for voting rights? Here’s another: I have the right to marry, and I hope one day that I’ll live in a world where everyone will have the right to marry whom he or she loves. Those rights, when they come to pass, will be rights that were fought for by the people of this generation. Does that mean I should marry gay because someone fought for my right to marry gay?
You espouse these beliefs under the guise of freedom, “Life itself is about making choices.” But it seems that you’re trying to say that the choice to abstain from voting is not a valid choice. It is my right to choose to not exercise the right to vote. You said that we should honor the people who fought for our freedoms and not four sentences later, you said that people should be federally required to vote. You do realize that it’s no longer a right when the government forces you to do it, don’t you? When I pay my taxes, I don’t think of it as exercising my right to pay taxes. You contradict yourself in your own opinion. Either voting is a right or it should be federally required. You can’t have both of them.
Here is an economist’s and statistician’s perspective on voting.: Voting requires a cost in spent time and effort with little to no payoff other than some sense of having performed one’s “civic duty.” The likelihood of affecting the outcome of an election is on par with the likelihood of winning the lottery. The cost of playing the lottery is greater than the expected payoff from playing the lottery. With this being the case, many people do not play the lottery. Similarly, people abstain from voting because their expected payoff is far outweighed by their expected cost of voting. You will just have to accept that some people place no value on this arbitrary, contrived sense of “civic duty” that people like you try to shove down the throats of others.
The effort spent in making an informed decision about a voting issue is often greater than the expected reward from making that decision. But what if you cannot discern a substantial advantage voting in favor of one issue/candidate over another? Should you vote for yourself even if you don’t have a chance of winning?
More logic for you: People in other places do not have the rights we do, therefore we should exercise them. There are rights I have that others don’t and that I choose not to exercise. I am not obligated to exercise the rights that others do not have. That’s why they’re called “rights.”
I do not vote because my vote does not make a difference. No general election has ever been decided by one vote. And if an election ever came down to one vote, a mandatory recount would take place, and another Florida 2000 fiasco would take place. Your rejoinder will be that if everyone who thought as I do decided to vote, then maybe the outcome would be different. And I agree. But if you were to still remove my vote from that new scenario, the outcome would be unchanged by the lack of my vote.
I have many more reasons for not voting. I challenge you to refute them all. I understand that your column is an opinion column, but I would at least hope that you would use sound logic and not contradict yourself.
You can contact Andrew at opinions@alligator.org.
