Ten Terrible Reason to not Vote (and two good ones)

In which Hank wants to make it very clear that you really should vote if you can.

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[TolarianCommunityCollege]

“People in debt become hopeless and hopeless people don’t vote.  They always say that that everyone should vote but I think that if the poor in Britain or the United States turned out and voted for people that represented their interests there would be a real democratic revolution.” -- Tony Benn

[atenololgrl]

As an unmarried, non land-owning female, even though I can sometimes be disillusioned about the process - I vote on the sheer principle.  Several of my family members served in the military and less than 100 years ago several women dedicated their entire lives to getting the vote for those who were denied the right.  It's my part.  It's the least I can do.

[thomaswillard]

"My vote won't matter"

May I introduce you to the Sorites paradox.

You have a heap of sand. Removing an individual grain does not make it into a none heap. Therefore if this is repeated you are left with a single grain.

Is a grain a heap? Or do heaps not exist?

If the mass of votes is important, and removing your vote does not diminish the importance then eventually you will be reduced to a single vote in which case either all votes are important or importance does not matter.

[ghuegel]

Please god do *not* vote if you don't have a good understanding of who or what you're voting on.  Too many people do too little research and vote anyway.  And it's OK to leave your ballot mostly empty because you don't only have an informed opinion about a few of the issues/positions.

[TBomb]

vote cthulu 2016. He may be the greater of two evils, but at least you know where he stands.

[TheMadisonMachine]

Some issues I have with this video

1) The 1% does have way more impact on elections, but it's not because they vote more than the rest of the 99%. The rich make significant financial donations for politicians who steer the direction of the government in the rich people's favor. In an ideal clone of the US, frequency and kind of laws passed would match the countrymen's interest, but in our world, a bill has about a third of a chance of being passed regardless of interest in the matter. The 1%, however, have a much more significant 61% chance of getting a bill passed in their interests due to their financial power enabling them to hire lobbyists, buy politicians, and smother opposition in media. CNN ran a poll after the Democratic Debate over which candidate won the debate, with Bernie Sanders taking a strong lead over Hillary Clinton. CNN, a major contributor to Hillary's campaign, removed the poll from the website and reported her triumph over Sanders all over media, despite her having much squishier answers to prompts and refusing to talk about the Black Lives Matter movement, while Sanders pushed for things the common people want.

2) The United Sates of America is not a democracy, or it would be called that in every text book in the world. It is a republic. Citizens' votes individually do not matter, nor do they directly affect elections. They are suggestions to elected representatives at the town, county, state, and federal level. While Americans can elect these representatives, it is all too easy for them to become corrupt.

[julianalbertoarcesanchez]

I think it's quite sad, Hank, all the negative comments on this video - not of people who think different, but people who are simply jaded, or tired, or hopeless. It is a rather similar thing with people in my country (Colombia); and perhaps the greatest threat to democracy is apathy. It is quite ironic, that of almost 200 years of fighting for equal representation, in some many different countries with such different ideologies, people are actually saying by their inaction that they don't want to have a say in how things are run. I do not know if they don't want to think about it, or don't want the responsability, or simply feel that "political things" affect them in any way... but it is very, very sad. Sorry for the sad post - but hurray for all of you who vote and inform yourselves, wherever you are in the world.

[vlogbrothers]

In which to make it very clear that you really should vote if you can. 

[adamborison]

Under 18 and I wish I could switch places with anybody not voting.

[MatthewP]

I say my vote doesn't matter, in the sense of the electoral college being the deciding thigng... But i still vote

[SarahSunshine]

I don't vote anymore, because the people I vote for are controlled by big companies, lobbyists and so on. I know there are some people in Congress for example, that actually are looking out for us. But on the example of a supportive bill on local (organic) farming in the states a vote would never go through, because the people voting are supported in millions and millions by the big agricultural companies. So I choose to vote indirectly by making the choices in my life that I think are right. Fot example supporting local farmers cause they are the ones that actually produce what is yummy and dense in nutritional value. I feel better that way.

[evelfa]

I always vote because one of the only memories I have of my great grandmother was her telling me and my sister to always vote, because she was around when women couldn't vote and helped to fight for it so that her daughters and granddaughters will be able to enjoy that right.  Can't very well say no to that!

[PiandBooks]

As a 14 year old I cannot wait until am old enough to vote. I won't make excuses because no excuse is good enough for me not to vote, because I know it is a great privilege that some people in the world don't even have. Yes our system isn't perfect, but it's better than other countries and I'm grateful for that. I just hope young people won't continue to make excuses not to vote.

[elizabethblack]

'if you don't vote you can't complain about the results '
- my social studies teacher on election day

[jeri]

Thank you Hank, I needed this. I was not looking forward to voting, but now I'm kind of psyched up for it. Thanks again :)

[Nimiety]

If you're in a red state, and you vote democrat...you might as well have not voted at all.
The Electoral College is what makes a lot of us feel like our votes don't matter much, in these situations.. they really don't. 
If someone can win the Popular vote but lose the presidential race because of the the Electoral College .. That can make you feel like your vote is worthless, unless you're in a swing state. 
Also, this is the main reason you don't see many political ads unless you are in a swing state, even the system knows our individual votes don't add up to much. 

[TolarianCommunityCollege]

“I think democracy is the most revolutionary thing in the world….because if you have power you use it to meet the needs of you and your community.” --Tony Benn

[afishynado]

I'm not American, but I think from an outsider's perspective (Australian) the most illogical and irrational thing in the democracy of America is the electoral college system for electing the president. While I understand at least in theory how this operates, the fact that it is ultimately a one shot - win the state, win all the votes from that state - rather than a representative proportion of votes per state seems ridiculous to me.

Furthermore, I think the greatest arbitrary psychological barrier to people voting is how long (and I'm talking presidential race here) it goes for. Candidates from each side spend an entire trying to prove why their own party's other candidates are lying sacks of shit before they go on to face the other side's lying sacks of shit in the contest for all of the bananas. This lengthy process also leads to the prevalence of money in politics, and the big donations from big corporations that leads to the perception (and almost certainly reality) that politicians are bought and owned by the rich. Yes it is all well and good Hank to say that everyone has one vote, but Citizens United squashed the idea that everyone has access to the same freedom of speech.

And... furthermore... who came up with the idea of holding elections on a tuesday? In Australia we hold elections on saturdays, because most people aren't working (although this is changing), and it isn't a pain in the arse to go and vote some place.

[AbdelrahmanWahba]

Hank, this is one of the very, very few comments I'm leaving on YouTube. And I think it is going to be rather lengthy.

I'm an 30yr old Egyptian guy who lived through the Egyptian revolution and the coup backed by the people.

I used to vote even before the revolution in 2011 under the same beliefs that you have mentioned in the video. And when I asked people to vote I heard similar answers.

Now, after the current "president", who is working vigorously to eliminate any political space or activity in Egypt, and has delayed the parliamentary elections so many times it seems to require us to take a time machine to reach them, and has made the people vote on a constitution that he transformed into toilet paper not-surprisingly (civilians get jailed without charge and get military trials, civilians in North Sinai are being deported out.of their homes under the belly of national security and are not compensated for their losses - that's just to mention stuff off the top of.my head), now voting in our country actually seems fruitless and in some cases risky. Cuz in some voting stations the organizers can intrude to see your vote and report you if you vote against state, since we live under a totalitarian state using democracy a make up.

And even after we vote here in Egypt, we know for sure that we live in a lawless military run country that has the utmost disdain for civilians and humans in Egypt in general.

What I'm trying to say, when I hear about people in the usa not voting, my blood boils and think that whoever is not voting is basically not appreciating the blessing you guys are having. We lived through losing friends and loved ones being killed on the streets beside us and being jailed for no f***ing reason just to get the right to vote and for us to matter here; and for the right to a better future, and we lost it.

I think you should tell people to go vote or else they will end up being completely screwed, use us and other totalitarian authoritarian countries as an example.

Sorry for this long comment and I really could hardly hold back all the cursing I had in mind, because this is a big deal that you can actually make a difference peacefully and without bribery or pulling strings that you don't have.

If anyone doesn't want to vote, I'd trade passports with them instantly so they can live in a country that doesn't want them to vote and I'll live in the usa and promise you that I'll vote on every singe ballot, law, referendum, election or even beauty contest that allows me to vote.

[Thaheadband]

Proud to say I am 18 and voted the first chance I got.