Being that I work in politics and have a lot of political activist friends, voting is often seen a sacred activity. It is considered a serious offense if one’s own vote is not counted, one’s own voice is not heard.

I am skeptical about such notions, noting that one vote is one out of hundreds of millions. Voting as an aggregate is important, but on the individual level is not particularly important. It’s important for society’s voice to be recorded in it’s elections, but close elections aren’t truly decided by an individual vote but random chance. Did it rain one day? Did some random’s person car break down or get into a fender bender on the way to the polls?

It is correct in principal to say that the society’s actions are the aggregate of individual actions. Indeed that is true, but when it comes to individual level, it is little but random noise until the whole is aggregated together and counted, which is what elections do. If lots of people stayed home or millions of ballots were discarded, then yes, it would influence election results. Otherwise it’s just background noise in the system.

I vote by early mail ballot, every year since the program was established. I sign up on the State Board of Elections website at the beginning of every year, and they send me a ballot roughly 50 days before any election. I fill it out in the privacy of mail box, and drop it back in my mail box. And I don’t think it about it anymore. Just like most people do with paper plates or soda cans and nearest wastebasket. Okay, I might occasionally check the voterlookup.elections.ny.gov to see how long it took for my ballot to be canceled, but only because I’m a political geek, not because I’m up tight about my ballot being counted or not.

Voting is fine, and important part of the Democratic system on the aggregate. But for the most part, I don’t give it a lot of thought outside of work. The ballot comes in mail, you fill it out, and send it on it’s way. And it’s done, no longer my problem. Much like the garbage trucks hauling people sacks of garbage to mounds looming higher and higher on the outskirts of town. Pretty meaningless on an individual level.