On the Question of Voting

closet-keys:

“Many who already feel alienated and disempowered by the electoral system are not encouraged by the idea that voting represents the fullest extent of their power. We need to encourage people to vote as an important tactic to be used in conjunction with other vital political actions.”  – Bree Newsome

Voting in a flawed democracy feels pointless sometimes. You obviously can’t vote away capitalism; electoral politics aren’t revolutionary. I don’t fault anyone for focusing their energy elsewhere. 

But the reality is, even though it’s not revolutionary, it can influence people’s wellbeing while we’re working on revolutionary struggle. There’s that whole saying of “if voting made a difference they’d make it illegal” —but they literally do. Stripping people of voting rights has been a consistent practice throughout the entire history of the United States. There are a whole lot of people who live within these borders today who don’t have the legal right or ability to vote. I can’t take it for granted.

It is important to remember in these discussions that not everyone can vote because of oppressive legislation or lack of accessibility, and not voting does not mean someone isn’t working for positive change. No one in these conversations should shame people who pour their energy into other means of activism. I appreciate the posts promoting voting for those who can, but I’m uncomfortable with the number of them which imply that people who don’t vote should be ashamed or are not making any difference. We need to look at the whole picture. It is one tactic of many. And not everyone can engage in every tactic. 

I personally have the ability to spend half an hour on it (and in comparison I usually spend days or weeks working on activist projects outside electoral politics), so when it comes down to it, it’s one of the least time consuming tactics I engage in to try to influence things. It might not help, but it might, and it’s a lot less taxing than other things I contribute to that sometimes don’t pan out. For people similarly positioned, I don’t think there is any reason not to contribute to these tactics, especially on a local level. Sometimes your community just needs the budget passed so you can have safe school busses or so your library doesn’t close down. Sometimes there’s a person on the ballot who wants to change state law so anyone previously convicted for marijuana possession won’t need to disclose it on job applications. (Real examples.) 

Should we vote if we have the ability to? Yeah, I think we should. But we also need to do more than just vote, and to remember voting does not represent the entirety of our power to influence things.