People who are pessimistic about elections or the voting system often express their attitude as "does my vote matter?" In my opinion, the sentiment "why doesn't my vote count" is indicative of the person really saying "why isn't my vote the only one that count?"Our true attitude
During the election time, many people have strong opinions about which candidates should win. Yet many are also easily dejected about how unfair the whole system is, or why certain states (the battleground states) matter more, and how some people's votes are more important. The final sentiment is that their votes is not strong, nor significant toward the final outcome.
Once we feel that our votes are not significant, that it won't make a difference, then it is easy to skip the election because the return on our time invested is not worth the effort. This is a dangerous attitude in any democratic process.
Take the U.S. presidential election process. Only when everyone have faith in the election process would the collaborative effect come in. Only during the election would the poor have a chance to voice their demands, and have a chance to escape the dominance by the rich as at other times, when wealth is the usual social measuring yardstick.
We all know the importance of collaboration in social settings, such as from the Prisoner Dilemma. Yet in practice we often take the easy way out. It is this type of paradox that allows social outrages to occur, such as a few gangsters controlling the whole crowd, a few robbers threatening a whole subway train, or a few hijackers taking down a whole plane. The last thing we need is a nation of pessimistic voters who relinquish their votes and allow the small percentage of the upper-echelon of society to continue to dictate how the country will be run.
P.S.
If you are reading this, your vote is likely to be far more influencial than the average person. The fact that you have web-access will place you in the category of the population that more likely has the time and resources for reading online opinions, as well as to offer opinions or send friends emails. You are likely to be an influential person, however big or small your sphere of influence is. Furthermore, you are more likely to have the time and resource to make it to the voting booth, as well as to help or encourage others to make it there as well. (Most average voters have daily tasks, kids to care for, jobs to do, that will possibly prevent them the luxury of traveling to a voting site and vote.)Only registered users can write comments.
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