I heard an interesting tidbit on the radio this morning. I wish I had heard the whole piece, but I think I got the gist of it. I have to say that I was impressed – I hadn’t actually thought of things in these terms. First, an illustration: When you go to vote, do you always cast the maximum number of votes allowed? If so, why?
Let’s say that there are four available seats in a given election. Yet you only like three of the eight candidates. Do you still cast that fourth vote? Why is that? There is no law that I know of that requires you to do so. In fact, by doing so, you may even be hurting yourself in the long run.
If you instead vote only for the three candidates you support and withhold your final vote, you have actually influenced the voting process to an even greater degree. Rather than throwing a bone to another candidate that you might not like, and potentially giving them an edge, you withhold that vote so that no one else gets it, thereby not artificially increasing the total of another candidate just because you want to press another button (poke another Chad, check another box, whatever). Think about it!