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Any election's outcome will be the same whether I vote or not. It can't be truer, but somehow people get really mad at me when I say it.
by d--b 5y ago
Any election's outcome will be the same whether I vote or not.
It can't be truer, but somehow people get really mad at me when I say it.
- dragonwriter 5y ago> Any election's outcome will be the same whether I vote or not. Tied and one-vote margin elections are not at all unheard of.
- d--b 5y agoDo I really have to make a likeliness calculation?
- giantg2 5y agoYou could also perform a systems thinking analysis looking at the n-order impacts and game effects of your decision. It might be a larger impact than your single vote.
- stretchwithme 5y agoThis is only a concern with electoral systems that deny the losing group representation. Like winner-take-all. It wouldn't make any difference at all with proportional representation. And PR can even be implemented in the executive branch, as the Swiss have demonstrated.
- dragonwriter 5y ago> It wouldn't make any difference at all with proportional representation. Yes, it would. Any PR system is going to have thresholding, so there will be some number of votes that do not effect the outcome. (Majoritarian elections are just one-seat PR with the Droop quota, maximizing ineffective votes.)
- hansvs 5y agoThere is a third option, spoil your ballot. It's invalid then, yes, but it's a statistic that the election/party analysts will track. Up to a certain threshold a spoiled ballot might be considered a mistake, but once over that threshold, it could me something more. For instance, that voters are not interested by the policies of any parties on the ballot.
- d--b 5y agoSure, but there too my vote would never tip the scale either way.