The Irony of Apathy

The idea that people are less expensive, less prone to flaws and in general more dependable and accurate is indeed “senseless.” People are the sole source of the corruptions you mention. Voting machines are not self-aware, they do not decide that they like one candidate over another and change the vote, that is all done by a person, most likely several. Machines are programmed to tally without error exactly what they are told. The actuality is people cost money; it takes many, many people to count votes and man the polls. Can you imagine what a colossal undertaking it would be to count 122 million ballots? On the contrary people are less likely to be more accurate in counting. Sometimes this is do to depravity other times do to just plain human error.

The Electoral College was put in place for just the reason that you querulously refer. The reasoning behind the Electoral College is not to quash the voice of the public, but to avoid chaos. Few voices are easily heard but when you have many a single utterance will be lost. While an elector can vote for a candidate contrary to the public’s wishes, doing so would have almost no impact on the results of said vote, not to mention he/she would not likely remain in their position very long.

Maybe you’re right; your vote won’t make a difference, with certainty, if you’re the only person who chooses not to vote. What happens when a hundred or a million people opt out of an election? Many do and with as many reasons that I could not begin to count. Charles de Montesquieu once said that “The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.” I understand where you’re coming from, it’s easy to feel like your opinion is insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but if you let yourself believe for a moment that being impassive is the higher road, you are quite mistaken. Fore it will not be long that the majority is unspoken and the minority will rule. Take some time, think things through a bit more and ask yourself…"Is this what I truly believe?”