Do Not Vote

The following is a letter to the editor of the Mail Tribune published on October 20, 2008. I thought it was quite apt.

Do Not Vote
Let me pass on a bad rumor to you. You probably hear this one each election season. It goes like this: Everyone should participate and vote in our elections. This rumor is repeated so often that many of us have come to believe it is true.
Good government flows from the combined wisdom and intelligence of informed voters. If you are reading this letter in the back page of the newspaper, you are probably one of these smart voters. Efforts to increase the raw number of voters actually harm the quality of our government. We should not encourage apathetic, ill-informed people to dilute our measured judgments.
Elected officials spend staggering amounts of money each year just to get the attention of voters who are too busy to watch debates, attend events, or read intelligent reporting. How many inane political ads have you seen so far this year? Candidates successfully pander to the shallow voter with odd tax schemes, catch-phrases, and personal stories. Casual voters prefer charismatic candidates who are like them. Instead, we should elect upstanding, experienced, and exceptional people.
Voting is not cool. The vote does not rock. Please do not vote. — Jason Spies, Medford