The Dangerous Myth About Not Voting

As I traveled the country over the past several months, I heard many of the same frustrations from people of different ages and backgrounds: “I’m tired of all the polarization and fighting.” “Everything costs more. It’s harder to get ahead.” “Neither party seems to care about me.” 

And the kicker: “Why bother voting if nothing changes?”

I get it. I’ve spent much of my career in and around politics, and I’m frustrated, too. But alarm bells go off when I hear frustration hardening into resignation.

My first instinct is to lecture about civic responsibility and the sacrifices of previous generations. But I resist that temptation. As extraordinary as the struggle for voting rights has been in this nation, reminding people of the debt we owe those who fought and died for the ballot doesn’t necessarily convince people that their vote can make a difference.

The honest answer is that we cannot always know.

Powerful Misconceptions

Participation doesn’t guarantee we’ll get the outcome we want. Candidates can disappoint us. Institutions fall short of their promises. Elections come and go, and many of the challenges facing our communities remain unresolved.

But as we approach the Nov. 3 midterm elections, I think another question is worth asking: What power will we gain by choosing not to participate?

A dangerous misconception underlies the decision not to vote: that if we don’t participate, things stay the same. That somehow, by opting out, we can freeze the status quo and avoid the consequences. But choosing not to participate doesn’t mean choosing not to be affected. That’s not how it works.

Budgets still will be adopted. Laws still will be passed — or not. Decisions will be made about schools, housing, healthcare, workers’ rights and economic opportunity, just without you. Withdrawal doesn’t stop change. It simply reduces our ability to shape its direction.

And when our economic security, our children’s futures and the strength of our communities are at stake, we should think very carefully about whose voices we allow to direct those decisions.

Lessons from Pleasant View

There’s a story from 1968, but it isn’t about what we owe the past. It’s about what we can learn from it.

In “Too Precious to Lose,” I tell the story of Pleasant View, a small Black Methodist church in Montgomery County, Maryland, whose members spent generations building institutions that created opportunities in a society that routinely denied them.

In 1968, amid the mayhem following Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, the congregation was fighting for its survival and faced a critical vote on whether to merge with two white congregations in the surrounding community. At a moment when so much about the country’s future seemed uncertain, they were being asked to make a consequential choice about their own.

Racial divisions were deeply entrenched, and the Black congregants had good reason to question whether their white neighbors would prove trustworthy partners. The merger proposal was met with considerable resistance.

But when members of all three congregations finally cast their secret ballots, a majority voted for the merger. While the vote was decisive, it did not settle whether the merger would actually succeed. That would require the incremental work of coalition building: bringing together people with different histories, confronting divisions, and building a community that none of the congregations could have created on its own.

The Pleasant View experience reminds us that a vote can be consequential without being sufficient. Their decision in 1968 changed the course of their community. But building the community they envisioned required the commitment and hard work of the years that followed.

No Guarantees

The same principle applies to our elections. Voting determines who exercises public authority and helps shape the choices available to our communities. It also sets the table for the work that follows.

Too often, we judge political participation by whether it delivers the outcome we want. But that’s the wrong measure. The value of participation lies in the influence it gives us, not in a guarantee of success. And that influence doesn’t end at the ballot box. It continues through the institutions we strengthen, the leaders we hold accountable and the communities we build.

On Election Day, Nov. 3, our votes will help determine who makes decisions affecting our lives. And on Nov. 4, the work of organizing to shape those decisions, holding leaders accountable, strengthening our institutions and building the communities we want will continue.

Pleasant View taught me that we can exercise power without knowing whether we’ll succeed. Participation cannot guarantee the future we want. But withdrawal means surrendering our say in shaping it. 

Jason G. Green wrote “Too Precious to Lose: A Memoir of Family, Community, and Possibility.” He previously served as national voter registration director for Obama for America and as special assistant to the president and associate White House counsel during the Obama Administration.