Why do we often hate the people that we vote for? Why does a person who seems spineless end up in a position of authority? Why do our choices, come election night, often seem to be false ones? Why is election turnout often low in the United States? Why is primary turnout, where often the real choices are made, even lower?


I'm often annoyed when people cite Wikipedia--hard to explain why, it's just that I often like to go to the original sources coupled with some kind of mental hangup--but I really enjoyed reading this entry entitled Voter Turnout.

The one part of the article breaks it down this way:

The basic formula for determining whether someone will vote is

PB + D > C

Here, P is the probability that an individual's vote will affect the outcome of an election, and B is the perceived benefit of that person's favored political party or candidate being elected. D originally stood for democracy or civic duty, but today represents any social or personal gratification an individual gets from voting. C is the time, effort, and financial cost involved in voting. Since P is virtually zero in most elections, PB is also near zero, and D is thus the most important element in motivating people to vote. For a person to vote, these factors must outweigh C.

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