You should vote.  

Plain and simple, you should vote.  It is a right afforded to us by the very country we live in, and you should exercise that right as often as possible.

But of course, not everyone does.  In fact, a large percentage of the population willingly does not.  

Fun fact: approximately 93 million registered voters did not vote in the 2012 election between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.  Compare this to the 126 million who did vote, and one can see that non-voters have a much larger numerical impact than they believe.  The problem is that those 93 million non-voters had the collective power to sway the election in pretty much any direction they chose (if they all worked in cohesion, which we all know doesn’t happen).  The impact of not voting cannot be ignored.

And the reasons (or excuses, depending on who you ask) given for not voting are about as varied as the matters we are voting for in the first place: voting booths are too far away, no candidates reflect our values, voting is too hard, too much of a nuisance, more hassle than necessary, that our voices do not actually matter, that our votes do not count, that our elections are already decided before we even vote, etc etc etc.  There’s no real end to the reasons given for not voting.

But here’s the problem: if the people who purposely decide to not vote actually voted, the results of our elections at every level would look radically different.  You see, we’re letting a non-representative number of voters and electors represent our interests and voice.  We complain endlessly about not being heard or politicians not matching our values.  But you chose not to vote, thus deliberately silencing yourself and essentially ensuring your voice is effectively not heard.  How can one complain about a system they refuse to do anything about?  

It borders on hypocrisy and laziness.

Of course, this article only addresses those citizens who have the ability to vote and willingly choose not to.  This article does not focus on those citizens who are disenfranchised, systematically intimidated from voting, or who are unable to vote due to our various “Voter I.D.” laws.

When we break an arm, do we just stare and complain and point out every reason why our arm won’t get better without ever going to a doctor?  Do we make excuses like “oh, no advertised doctors represent my health values, so I’m not going to see one” or “getting a cast is too inconvenient”?  Or do we say we’re protesting the health system by not seeing the doctor?  Because if that’s the case, all we’re really doing is allowing ourselves to continue to hurt without ever doing anything to fix the problem.  And like a broken arm, our broken system will not be fixed by simply not participating in it, or by constantly complaining about it without doing something about it.

If the system is to be fixed and to be truly representative of everyone’s voice, perhaps everyone should actually make their voice heard.  The best way to have that happen is to vote.  I would usually say protest is the best way to make a voice heard, but in this specific case, we are paradoxically choosing to remain silent in an effort to be heard, and it’s failing.  Not voting as a form of protest is systemically ignored.  I’m sorry, but making no noise at all is probably the least effective way to make a voice heard.  As the site VotingCounts puts it: “Voting isn’t the only way you can have influence over politics. But it is the easiest. Make sure you vote.”

But there is an option to have your voice heard without compromising your ideals by voting for a candidate you disagree with: blank voting or null voting.  Voting blank or NONE is one of the more effective and powerful tools available to the voter.  By intentionally leaving a ballot option blank, the ballot has to be counted.  All votes are counted, recorded, then announced, including ballots that were left blank or ‘spoiled’.

The blank or null vote is vastly important to those of us who are tired of non-representative politics.  As Chiara Superti, lecturer in political science and Director of the M.A. program at Columbia University, so aptly puts it:  “Indeed, the BNV [blank/null vote] is shown to be the tool of the vanguard of discontented citizens.”

The reason this voting option has so much potential behind it is that it demonstrably shows a clear dissension from the current political process.  Blank voting, or voting NONE, also counters the notion of voter apathy.  While it is true that voter apathy exists and is a significant problem for a constitutional republic, it is also true that if the overwhelming amount of people who do not favor any potential candidate voted blank or NONE, the election results would be effectively different.

Unfortunately, there is no official ballot space that allows for a NONE or blank option, so it is up to the voter to do this.  It is a direct, visible protest that cannot be overtly ignored or attributed to voter apathy or education.  By presenting the blank/ null ballot as a form of protest, we are ensuring that we are heard and not ignored.