Why Can't Johnny Vote?

France has a new president, Nicolas Sarkozy, elected over his socialist opponent by a comfortable margin. Most significantly, 85% of France voted for him, leaving only 15% whistling on the sidelines. I applaud the people of France, but does it make me feel inadequate?

In the United States, when 62% of voting age citizens vote, as they did recently, we call it a good year. 68%? A record breaker. Even the Iraqis did better than that in January of 2005, with estimates as high as 72%. Horrors! After we figure out who is the new U.S. president, our commentators sit down and cry and over the fact that we are wasting our freedom. If only more people would vote... then what?

We spend a lot of time every four years wondering whether we are bad Americans, or thinking that if we remind or badger people often enough, we can be more like the French. Rock the Vote? Yes, by all means rock the vote. Knock yourselves out. What is the point of initiatives like that one? The cliche goes: You don't just have the right to vote; you have the responsibility. They don't usually choose to explain what they mean by that. When they do, they tell you there are big issues at stake (they list them), and democracy itself is at stake. Their dirty little secret is that like similar movements, most of its adherents imagine the new voters will vote for their candidate. In fact, most of the people who cry about low voter turnout seem to think that all elections would have gone a different way had everyone voted, that maybe the will of the people wasn't expressed after all. In a country that runs on marketing surveys where multi-billion dollar decisions are made on the sampled opinions of 4,000 people out of 300 million, also known as .0013%, I think 62% is a damned good representative sample. As it turned out, voters who were "rocked" last time around didn't vote the way their cheerleaders hoped.

I vote, by the way. I have never missed a vote in any year. But if you are concerned that not enough people vote, it behooves you to find out why the stay-at-homes don't vote. Studies always pull this line out of people: "It doesn't directly affect my everyday life," or its cousins "It doesn't matter," and "All politicians are really the same." Next in line, but perhaps more honest is, "I don't know enough about the issues to make an informed decision." And lastly, "I don't want to feel responsible for the decisions those people make in office." Maybe these reluctant ones know what they're talking about and have a point.

Still, the grassroots vote pushers say, "Get out and vote. You have to. Even if you don't know the candidates or the issues. Even if you're not sure. That's how you fulfill your responsibility." Maybe all voters should go into the booth blindfolded if it's just about going into the booth. They talk about fulfilling your responsibility as if it's the same as filling a cup with urine. You don't need to think about it; we'll test the results later.

I say that instead of attacking all the above non-voting reasons as illegitmate, we can make more progress by figuring out what they mean, and even consider the fact that they may well be legitimate reasons. If someone doesn't understand the issues, for instance, their vote would theoretically be worthless, random (a 50-50 outcome), or even damaging. So instead of demanding they vote blindly, let's try to educate them, and if we have failed that with some by election day, leave that group alone. Let those of us who were paying attention express an opinion.

Most interestingly, those who say, "It doesn't matter" may in fact be casting a vote of confidence in our country; may in fact be saying that we are so strong and there are such excellent checks and balances, and they have such faith in their fellow Americans that we will be fine no matter sits in the office. I don't happen to agree with those sentiments, but I find it a healthy barometer of a free nation. So the next time you think other democracies are superior to us, consider that maybe their people have good reason to show less faith.