You Don’t Have an Obligation to Vote: New at Reason

You have the right to vote—and the right not to vote. There’s no obligation, A. Barton Hinkle writes:

Given the current campaign trajectory, voters will almost certainly face a November choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Many already wonder how they can possibly cast a vote in good conscience for either of those two. If you count yourself among that unhappy lot, here’s good news: You don’t have to. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with sitting out the election if you feel like it. (You can vote for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, too, but a previous column covered that option.)

Americans are force-fed the opposite message every election season—usually by self-interested partisans trying to run up the score for their own teams, but sometimes by mind-numbingly conformist editorial writers of the sort who also write earnest reminders about wearing your seat belt. (From time to time there are even proposals to make voting mandatory.)

But once you start dissecting the please-vote platitudes, it quickly becomes evident that you should feel no guilt about skipping the polls.

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