<p>Voting for philosophical or moral reasons aside, there are actually very few reasons to vote this or in any upcoming election from a purely mathematical standpoint.</p>
<p>10 people vote for a leader, every vote effectively holds 10% of the power right? Makes sense then for everyone to vote right? Right.</p>
<p>50 million people vote for a leader(s) then every vote actually counts for less than 1% of the actual decision making power. It's one of the great paradoxes of democracy, voting is essential to it's functions but the more people that vote the less the individual vote matters unless it happens to be in a campaign that happens to be EXTREMELY tight such as the so called swing states. In states ridings, cantons, districts and what nots that are overwhelmingly slanted to one side or another such as Texas, no matter what side you support, staying home on voting day won't affect the results all that much. Of course, this does not apply if EVERYONE were to do it, but since that is not going to happen you can safely stay home and do something that's actually going to achieve something significant.</p>
<p>Of course, democracy isn't simply a numbers game, that's why Poli-Sci classes aren't required for people who want to be accountants. However, the next time you put on your holier-than-thou facade because someone you know didn't vote, just think to yourself, did him not voting actually matter all that much? What voting - at least in places that are overwhelmingly skewed to one side, does in the end is satsify humanity's need to fulfill selfish rational desires.</p>
<p>Why live? With about 6,528,089,562 people alive at this moment, and billions more who have already gone and past, there is mathematically little difference nor chance that one person will matter. In the end, in a world in which everyone is doomed to death, isn't the will to live just a selfish human rational desire?</p>
<p>Well, one person might not make a difference but if a large number of people will count. Anyways, if you don't vote then you can't complain when you have a crappy government.</p>
<p>Folks, I have already addressed situations such as Florida, in situations where it's really close, voting actually does matter. I also added that what maybe harmless to a few individuals does not necessarily ring true if everyone did it together. Example, if you save 30% of your income every month, that's good. If everyone in the world were to copy you, investment would plunge thereby significantly harming the economy.</p>
<p>As for the sarcastically asked question "Why live?", that's more of a question for philsopher's, not mathematicians or economists.</p>
<p>The fact is, political science majors and junkies like to believe that politics is the end all be all in this country. I'm just trying to make a case with grade seven mathematics that it's not. Just for the record, I do vote.</p>
<p>They should abolish the electoral college. It's obsolete. It was necessary at one time, when people didn't know anything about the candidates so had to trust their representatives, but not now when we have mass communication.</p>
<p>If not for electoral college, Gore would be president right now.</p>
<p>Then, there's the issue of the voting machine fraud.</p>
<p>Yes, having lived through the "hanging chad" fiasco (I have the front page section from the Palm Beach Post for the three weeks between the election and the day it was ultimately "certified."), you would be surprised how few votes made a difference that year in the presidential election.</p>
<p>Not just in the first election, but in the 2nd. Rolling Stone did an excellent article on the voting maching fraud in the last election. Bush didn't win either time.</p>
<p>Argument of the beard - how many hairs make up a beard? Is it 900? Then 899 hairs would work as well... etc...</p>
<p>So If 1 person doesn't vote, big deal. Two people, three, the trend continues and you see my point.</p>
<p>I'm not legally able to vote, but I don't think I'll ever want to - unless I'm absolutely postively sure the other candidate SUCKS, I don't care what happens. Like in the 2000 election, everyone was all like OMG VOTE FOR BUSH HES SOOO GOOD and I was like "Uh well not really" and they'd be like "so you support gore?" and i'd say "no, i think both suck" and of course then everyone'd be like "EW WHY DO U LIKE GORE!!!" (we were in 6th grade, so god knows why we were talking politics... but yeah i was right and they were wrong because now all the people who voted for bush don't like him.)</p>
<p>People vote because they feel they have a duty to the democratic system, to their political party, or to their favored candidate to do so. The psychological benefits that people get from fulfilling this duty outweigh the costs of voting, making it rational. Whether the vote actually makes a difference doesn't matter that much.</p>