A study by Princeton and Northwestern universities (
http://www.princeton.edu/~mgilens/G...ens and Page 2014-Testing Theories 3-7-14.pdf) has shown that the United States operates much more like an oligarchy than the democratic republic it claims to be. An oligarchy is a form of government where the power is held by a select few who, as history has shown us, often protect the interests of those select few. In short, the masses do not have power. An oligarchy is not democratic, and it’s not usually representative of the masses. Right now, that’s our reality. It’s our reality because we allow it to be our reality.
Only 33.9 percent of registered voters (
Actual election turnout far lower than reported | Al Jazeera America) turned out to vote during the midterm elections this year. That percentage doesn’t even take into account the 70 million eligible voters who aren’t registered at all. Only 76.9 million voters went to the polls out of over 227.2 million who were eligible to have done so. Considering how many people voted, having 70 million people not even registered is a disaster in a representative democracy.
Now, I won’t wax poetic about the billions of people who dream about having the opportunity to vote in a democracy or the hundreds of thousands who have given their life in hope of securing that very right. I’m only talking about Americans for now, but I haven’t forgotten those countless others.
One of the basic tenets of a democracy is that it is based off the voice of the people. But if the people don’t speak up, we might as well retire that whole “Democratic Republic” part of our country’s name because it’s currently inaccurate. Again, it’s only that way because the non-voters allow it to be.
I’ve seen dozens of posts across social media from non-voters bragging about not voting, punctuating their declarations of non-participation with a fat “LOL.”
These non-voters have a healthy list of reasons why they choose to sit out of politics.
One commonly cited reason is that individual votes don’t count. It is certainly true that very few elections are decided by a single vote margin. But this “my vote doesn’t count” nonsense leaves out two very important things. First, there are 150 million non-voters, many of whom claim that their vote doesn’t count. That’s more than twice the amount of votes cast this season! If all 150 million of the “my vote doesn’t count” non-voters decided to vote, then those votes would most certainly count. Why? Because of the second reason: the politics of the voters and the politics of the non-voters are very different (
Nonvoters: Who They Are, What They Think | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press). A Pew Research study found that during the 2012 presidential election, 64 percent of non-voters had a favorable view of Barak Obama while only 32 percent of non-voters had a favorable view of Mitt Romney. Those percentages are very different from the percentages who voted for each candidate.
Another commonly cited reason for being a non-voter is that both the Democratic Party and the Republican party are pretty terrible right now. HuffPost Pollster says that 42.2 percent of Americans view the Democratic Party favorably (
Democratic Party Favorable Rating - Polls - HuffPost Pollster) while only 36.2 percent of Americans view the Republican Party favorably (
Republican Party Favorable Rating - Polls - HuffPost Pollster). There were an unfortunate number of candidates at every level of government who ran unopposed and even more districts without third-party candidates (
https://gist.github.com/alecperkins/59d87df3abb1ae232e4f), but there were still hundreds of third-party candidates on the ballots across the country. Third-party candidates often build their platforms specifically to address issues that neither the Democratic nor the Republican candidates are pushing for. Not many third-party candidates manage to get elected, but if those 150 million non-voters were to rally behind those third-party candidates, they’d surely win.
It’s important to note that election day isn’t just about passing power between different elected officials; important propositions are on the ballots too. The election results on these propositions are often legally binding, meaning if the vote passes, the proposition becomes law. These propositions cover a wide range of subjects that impact the daily lives of the citizens of this country. Propositions on the ballots this time around included the subjects fetal personhood, marijuana decriminalization, reducing prison overcrowding, overhauling political redistricting, increasing minimum wage, and increasing gun control. Non-voters are willingly leaving themselves out of the conversation about these topics by refraining from voting.
The last reason for not voting that I’ve heard too many non-voters give is also the most worrying reason: they’re not informed enough to participate. Many non-voters know that they know very little about the people and issues on the ballot, but they choose to do nothing about it. Some are even proud of their lack of knowledge! As if willingly keeping one’s self uninformed is a new form of protest.
Some would argue that it’s better that uninformed voters stay home, but instead of saying, “If you don’t know, don’t vote,” I’d rather say, “If you don’t know, do some reading.” I am very wary about anyone actively discouraging voting because that goes against the very nature of a democracy. Creating abstract prerequisites for voters, like “minimum political knowledge” requirements, is a very dangerous slippery slope. If we want to have a democracy, we need to accept that its weaknesses are still stronger than the weaknesses of other forms of government, and that means we need to accept that all eligible voters should be able to vote and all eligible voters should feel like they’re worthy of the right to vote.