A Perspective on Voting

My mother and I had an exchange last night. Not an argument, just an exchange over an issue we don’t agree on. Today is a voting Tuesday so this issue is very timely. I told her that I would not be voting today because I’ve been so removed from Minnesota for so long that I would have no idea as to who to vote for. I am not one of those voters who blindly goes into the voting booth and votes strictly party line. The only reason I am registered to a party at all is because our government requires it of us. Anyway, I also added an aside like, “Not that my vote matters anyway.”

She jumped to the defense of the vote. “Your vote does matter.” She said. “No it doesn’t.” I countered. I, of course brought up the shameful Gore/Bush election and she, of course, reminded me of the Electoral College. Fortunately we didn’t go on very long like this. We both stayed our ground.

I realize, looking back on our exchange, that I wasn’t very clear or well spoken. I should have said that mathematically my vote doesn’t matter. If I had voted opposite the way I did in every election, the results would have all been the same. Thus my vote does NOT matter. Fact.

Do I think we are all wasting our time voting? No.

Do I vote? Usually. I used to be able to say yes to this but since today is an election day and I am not voting, I cannot in good conscious say simply “yes”.

My vote matters ethically and morally. When I have a gripe about our government a typical response is “Well then, change it.” They say this as though it were a simple thing to do. They say this as though THEY know how to “just change it”. They also add, “Do you vote?” My vote matters because I can look at these people and say, “Yes.”

Truth be told, what I think really matters is letter writing. I think we all need to make a habit of writing letters to government officials. When a letter is relevant and well-written I believe they appreciate it. I remember one elected official saying that for every individual letter they receive, they consider that this is the opinion of X number of people who don't bother to write. (I don’t remember the number.) That’s power. That’s a lot more powerful than a single vote. One of my former neighbors in St. Paul hosted a letter writing party. There was a particular issue that was affecting our neighborhood. As I remember she even went as far as to provide officials names, addresses, stamps, paper and envelopes to encourage people to write and to make it easier for them. It’s much easier, of course, with e-mail. If nothing else, their response can tell whether or not you want to vote for them.

For years every issue or individual I voted for lost. I was pretty bitter. I thoughtlessly said “My vote doesn’t matter.” My mother (and others) were there to tell me that it did matter. I asked them how they could possibly say my vote mattered when everything I voted for lost? They sidestepped this question with democratic (as in democracy, not the party) rhetoric that majority rules. (Is this a good time to mention Gore/Bush again? No. I don’t know enough about it.) I know that majority rules or is supposed to rule. That fact does not make my single vote matter unless you are strictly into the statistics of it. To me, the final outcome being 1,222,375 pro and 1,578,893 against versus 1,222,376 pro and 1,578,893 against does not mean that my one vote mattered. The outcome is the same.

I love the stories of married couples who routinely vote opposite each other. They joke, "We're going to the polls to cancel each other's votes." Do their votes matter? Not mathematically. They matter statistically. And they matter ethically.

I think people who listened to me whine (yes, I admit it) missed a good teaching opportunity. “Yes, Laura, you’re right. One individual vote won’t decide a large election like this. One vote matters if you are on the Supreme Court and you are the tie breaker, but when the numbers are this large, one vote does not matter. What does matter is the interest you show. What matters is the knowledge you gain while researching who to vote for. What matters is doing your part as a citizen when there are so many people in the world who do not even have a teensy voice like this. That’s what matters. And you can demonstrate that in the act of voting.”

That, I believe, would have rung true in me. That would have given me pride in voting long before I had it. It would have told me that I did not just waste my time getting up early and standing in line.

Some of us who are wrong are teachable. Don’t forget that. We need to learn how to talk with each other even when we disagree. I’ve said this before. I don’t see how we can have any hope of peace in the war ravaged regions or any alternatives to war if we cannot debate with our family, friends and neighbors.

I will end this gently with a beautiful panoramic view from the last hike I took about an hour out of Tashkent. It took a lot of climbing to get up this high just like debate takes a lot of work. But when we got to the top, this was our reward.