How to Avoid "Wasting Your Vote"

Written by Leon Felkins, May 26 1996

Revised May 26 1996

"In the last election, I wanted to vote for Perot, but I knew he couldn't win, so I voted for Bush instead"" - Anonymous, heard on Public Radio

Aspects of the Problem

• Your vote from Two Perspectives

  The significance of your vote depends on the perspective from which it is viewed. Of course, votes in mass determine the result of an election and your vote from that point of view -- the group view -- increases the chances of your candid ate winning. For the persons who are soliciting votes, your vote counts in the same way that every penny counts in the million dollar cash hoard they may have.

  But there is another way to look at the importance of your vote and that is from your own personal perspective. Strangely, most people do not take this view -- instead they always view their vote from the vote solicitors view, the group v iew. From your point of view, there is a very disturbing conclusion: your vote will make no impact on the election results!

  So, whether you voted for Clinton, Bush, or Perot, your vote had absolutely no impact on the election results. To emphasize this concept, let me suggest the following mental experiment: Let us say that you know that if your preferred cand idate wins you will receive an additional tax relief of $10,000. Unfortunately, on election day, you fell deathly ill from the previous night's partying and was unable to vote. Did your missing the election result in you not getting the $10,000 break? No way!

• So, Why Vote?

  >From your perspective then, we have to conclude that determining the election results is not a rational reason for voting. But there are other reasons for voting, a major one being the internal self-satisfaction of "doing your part" for d emocracy. This reason, along with others such as the respect of neighbors and friends, is a very legitimate reason for voting.

• Avoiding "Wasting my Vote"

  Then, if the reason for voting -- from the personal perspective -- is for our own personal self-satisfaction, then is it not a tragedy to not vote for the person you admire the most? We have already concluded that your vote will not actually impact the e lection results in any way. So, why lose the major benefit of voting -- your personal satisfaction -- by voting for someone you don't really want?

• The Positive Benefits of Honest Voting

  >From your point of view, voting for the person you really would like to have win gives you the major benefit from voting: personal self-satisfaction. But there is another good reason that is evident when we look at the situation from the group view. That reason is that true popular choice is realized. How can a third party ever become established -- since it must start small -- if people always follow the strategy of voting for the top two parties? Such a voting practice completely eliminates any chance of a third party ever becoming established. Is that what we want?

Summary

And if we all vote honestly, new candidates and new parties that must start small, have a chance of becoming established. To vote otherwise is to endanger democracy.