Is An Uninformed Vote Better Than No Vote?

ras_b asks: "I don't pay attention to politics at all, and so I will not be voting in today's elections. My family has been telling me that this is a mistake and I should vote anyway, partly because I have slightly conservative views which agrees with their political outlook. My reasoning is that since I am totally uninformed, I shouldn't vote. I don't want to vote Republican or Democrat, only to find out later I totally disagree with something a candidate stands for. So, here's my dilemma and my question: Is an uninformed vote better than no vote?" This issue is touched upon in a posting by Ezra Klein, of the The American Prospect, who disagrees, arguing against a similar assertion by Greg Mankiw, from a suppressed Fortune article. Greg says: "Sometimes...the most responsible thing a person can do on election day is stay at home ... If you really don't know enough to cast an intelligent vote, you should be eager to let your more informed neighbors make the decision." What do you think?

Comments

Re:Has no affect

[schmu_20mol]

Will someone please think of the children?!

what about instant runoff?

[sortadigital]

Instead of choosing between the "lesser of two evils," what about just doing every election as instant runoff? You rank multiple candidates in order of preference, and the candidates that get the least votes are elimated. Repeat until one remains.

Re:You are assuming..

[quarmar]

What I want is a negative vote. I want to be able to vote against a candidate, rather than picking from the list of his opponents.

I also would like to restrict voting on bond issues to those voters who own property (and will end up paying for the bonds).