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Comment by Nursie | Hacker News Reader

Yeah, no.

Your vote is your submission of your mandate to be governed and your preference of who does it. Not voting is a legitimate protest, IMHO, for one that doesn't believe in representative democracy (I believe in direct democracy or demarchy) and certainly for one who would see a pox both the houses of the leading two parties.

I do vote, as a way to try to support change, but I understand and sympathise with those that don't for idealogical reasons.

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Not-voting may be a form of protest from a philosophical standpoint, but it's an objectively awful one from a practical standpoint, since the political mechanism in place to affect change is precisely through the act of voting.

It's like trying to affect evolutionary change by abstaining from sex. You'll be successful... in removing yourself from the equation.

If you want to protest, why not show up at the polling station on election day and vote blank. This way you differentiate yourself from those who didn't vote because they where too lazy.

If you believe in direct democracy, many states have numerous initiatives on the ballot. You can always vote on those and leave the rest of your ballot blank.

I don't think abstention is a very good way to protest in a country with already low voter turnout.

Indeed, acting like someone who doesn't care is not exactly sending a loud signal that you disagree with the system.

I'm not sure what you can do at that point though, because spoiling or leaving a blank ballot gets you put in with those who weren't competent enough to register a vote.

I did this in the last election I voted in (last UK general election) - spoiling my ballot by voting into an extra box I drew labelled "Robert Mugabe :)"

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