6 Advantages of Not Voting

As an Anabaptist, I don’t take part in politics, because of our view of separation from the world. If you’d like to know more, check out the linked article. For me, this entails not voting. Many people might see not voting as a limitation, but I’ve found that it actually has advantages.

I don’t vote for moral evils

I recognize that people try hard to vote responsibly. However, no matter which candidate I choose, he is bound to support policies that I can’t agree with. There just aren’t any candidates today who hold to Jesus’ form of Christianity. If I choose a candidate and am helpful and instrumental in bringing him to power or in helping him get into office, I become in part responsible for what he does.

However, since I don’t vote, I’m not responsible for the moral evils that my candidate does. I don’t need to defend my candidate to other people when he does things that are wrong, and I certainly don’t need to take responsibility for the things that he did—whoever is in office got there with no help from me.

I don’t become influenced to minimize evils

Whenever we make a choice, we become biased toward whatever we chose. That’s why it’s so dangerous to vote for “the lesser of the two evils.” Whenever somebody chooses a candidate to vote for, even if they don’t agree with that candidate, they develop a bias for the things that their candidate does well—but they also develop a tendency to minimize or downplay what that candidate does badly.

I don’t want to ever be in the situation where I’m minimizing an evil just because I voted for a certain candidate. I don’t want to make excuses for things that are actually very concerning. To me, that’s a very good reason not to vote.

I’m at peace no matter what

I’ve put no trust at all in politics (or at least, I’ve tried to). Since I know that change comes from other places rather than from politics, I can be at peace no matter who is elected. During election time, I don’t write angry Facebook posts or make upset comments on videos, because I don’t trust governments to accomplish what I believe should be accomplished. So no matter who seems to be leading, I can be at peace. I don’t have to get into the hype that goes around during elections. I don’t have to worry that, if the liberal candidate gets in power, the policies that I am rooting for won’t get put in place.

I can sympathize with both sides

Since I stay out of politics, I’m not tied to one side or the other, so I can sympathize with people on both sides. If I voted for one side or the other, I would be tempted to sympathize especially with that side. It would be hard for me to be able to relate to what the other side believed. I would probably come to see them as stupid, or misinformed, or even evil. But they’re not. They’re people who care deeply about what they see as important.

People don’t write me off quite as quickly

We tend to tune out the people who hold differing political opinions from ours, because we already have them pegged. It seems that it’s not possible or barely possible for people today to be able to respect the other side. However, since I don’t air political opinions, people don’t know what to expect when I open my mouth. I’m able to speak into their lives because they haven’t automatically tuned me out. I don’t have to worry about being pegged, because I don’t have a side.

Christianity doesn’t become associated with politics

One of the worst things that happens when Christians start caring about politics is that Christianity becomes associated with a specific political viewpoint. That’s terrible, because it raises the bar for people to become Christians. If you associate becoming a Christian with holding certain political views that are repulsive to you, you’re less likely to convert. Politics are really close to people’s hearts, and they’re deeply bothered by the way the other side votes. I don’t want these issues to damage my Christian witness with politics.

You may or may not agree with me. However, if this article interested you and you’d like to explore it more, I recommend checking out the reasons my friend Drew gives for not voting.