A Cynic's Guide to Voting
It should come as no surprise that I am sick of electoral politics. After fairly-heavy involvement in the 2007 referendum on electoral reform, I got pretty burned out. I also got to see the inside of the electoral sausage factory, which turned me off politics even more.
As we all know, I did not work hard enough in 2007, and our campaign to reform our electoral system failed miserably. That means we are stuck with first-past-the-post for the forseeable future, and maybe for the rest of our lives. Elections are still being called, and the elected parties still craft legislation that directly affects our lives. When an election is called, what should we do?
The short answer: I don't know. Here are some options I have been mulling over during this election.
Vote with Your Conscience
I covered much of this territory in my last entry. We are misled into believing we should vote for the party/candidate that most closely represents our views, even if that is not one of the two main parties.
Pros
- You get to feel smug around your friends
- You can cling to the futile hope that your candidate will win its seat
- If your party gets enough of the vote then it will receive financial reimbursement
Cons:
- Your candidate will not win the riding
- Having your hopes dashed election after election gets tiring after a while
- By not supporting your second (or third) favourite option you might end up with your least favourite option
- Your vote will not help anybody get elected
- Nobody will care that you voted with your conscience -- it will not influence policy in any measurable way
Support the Best Local Candidate
Instead of worrying about politics at the federal/provincial party level, you might consider voting for the best local representative. After all, isn't that the way our electoral system is set up? You vote for a local representative who will represent your views in Ottawa/Queens Park?
Pros
- Maybe your candidate will win and represent your riding well
Cons
- If the best candidate is not from one of the two big parties then he/she won't get elected
- Nobody else votes based on local candidates. We vote on party leaders and party platforms
- Individual MP/MPPs are lapdogs who have to be more accountable to their leaders and the party whips than to their constituency (Andrew Telegdi learned this the hard way)
Vote Using a Strategic Website
There are a couple of horrible websites that encourage us to fight the Conservative majority by voting for the candidate most likely to unseat the Conservative candidate.
Pros
- Once in a while enough voters get coordinated enough to strategically vote a winner into power. (People say that Danny Williams in Newfoundland engineered this when he told people not to vote Conservative in the last federal election.)
- In some sense, voting against somebody is still helping influence who gets elected
Cons
- Usually strategic voting does not work
- The person you vote for will not necessarily support your views
- These horrible websites can be wrong, as they were in 2008 about the Kitchener-Waterloo riding
- There are multiple websites, and they do not necessarily advocate the same candidate, which means that depending on which website you follow you might get conflicting advice
- The websites do not advocate a single candidate in every riding
- The websites base their information on past election behaviour, not local feeling
- These websites are an argument for "uniting the left" and having two political parties overall
Vote for Pork
We are told by the Conservative incumbents that if we vote for them then we will have better access to the funders in Ottawa, which means more funding will flow into our riding. For example, Peter Braid's election literature trumpets how much federal money he has brought into the riding.
Presumably, voting for a party that does not support the government means that less funding (aka fewer bribes) flow to your riding
Pros
- A lot about politics is about pork anyways
- Pork is good for the local riding (at the expense of the overall taxpayer). Even vegans like pork.
Cons
- You might be voting for the party that has views opposite to yours
- The argument works best when ridings might fall to the non-governing party. I doubt a lot of election pork flows to safe seats in Alberta
Reject/Decline Your Ballot
Rejecting your ballot means that you go down to the voting station, take a ballot, and hand it back to the election officer. Some jurisdictions allow you to "decline your ballot", which means the ballot is counted separately from spoiled ballots.
Pros
- Your non-vote counts in records of voter turnout, which means that nobody can accuse you of being too lazy to participate in politics
- If enough people reject their ballots then voters can send a signal that they are fed up with their voting options
- Your vote does not count much less than if you had voted with your conscience
- This is a legal option (for now -- when enough people use this option then it will no doubt be outlawed)
Cons
- Your vote does not count for anything
- Nobody pays much attention to the number of rejected votes
- Often rejected votes are conflated with spoiled votes
- You might end up with your least-favourite electoral outcome
Spoil Your Ballot
You could eat your ballot or set it on fire, or just write in a candidate you would prefer to see on the ballot, such as Mr T or a LOLcat.
Pros
- You showed up to the voting booth (but it may not count towards voter turnout)
- Your vote does not count much less than if you had voted with your conscience
- You can feel smug
- Maybe if you are especially creative/destructive you will make the news
Cons
- Intentionally spoiling your ballot is illegal, according to section 167(2)(a) of the Canada Elections Act
- Your vote does not count for anything
- You may end up with your least-favourite outcome
Stay Home
You could join the large numbers of Canadians who don't bother participating in electoral politics.
Pros
- This is an easy option
- It is almost as effective as voting (especially if your candidate does not win)
- It may be the most realistic option
Cons
- Staying home does not send any message to the powers that be that you are upset with their system. Instead they just call you lazy and apathetic
- When we stop paying attention to politics important decisions are made without us
- There is speculation that the Conservatives want their opponents to stay home and not vote, so by not voting you may be playing into their hands
- Politicians and political parties cater their promises to demographics where they can win votes (which is why you see so many promises about taking care of seniors)
Support a Big-Tent Party
In our riding the big parties are the Conservatives and Liberals. There are a few battlegrounds where the Conservatives battle the NDP or Bloc Quebecois. Why not give in and vote for them?
Pros
- A big party might support your views "well enough"
- Your vote will either count (if your candidate gets elected) or make it harder for your opponent to get elected
- The party in power might fight for your vote, which means more pork for you
- By supporting a big party you can effectively keep their opponent out of power
Cons
- By supporting a big party you support First-past-the-post and its injustices
- Big parties don't need to have principles -- they just care about holding on to power
- When the party you voted into power does boneheaded things you might feel remorse
Vote Swap
There is a site that advocates pairing up voters from ridings where their preferred parties will not win, but where the preferred party of the partner might. Those two voters then agree to vote for each other's favourite party in the hopes of getting a more favourable outcome overall.
Pros
- Unlike strategic voting, this does not require coordinated actions between large blocs of voters
- If it works then it can help overcome a big limitation of first-past-the-post by distributing votes across ridings more effectively
Cons
- This does away with any fiction that we vote for individuals and not parties
- You have to vote for a party that does not represent your views
- There is no obligation for your voting partner to keep his or her promise. The votepair website says that you should keep your promise because it would be illegal not to, but because votes are secret there are few ways to enforce this law (unless you go around bragging about ripping your partner off, which still might not hold up in court).
- Voting for your favourite party in another riding does not benefit your local riding association financially
- You have to disclose your intended vote to others
What's a voter to do?
I don't know what you should do. Surely you were cynical enough to know that I don't have the answer, right?
At this point, I am not wholly decided either. I am considering vote swapping, rejecting my ballot, or supporting a big party.