Hacker News Reader

> 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.

This 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.

> 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.)

Do I really have to make a likeliness calculation?

You 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.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com