Your Vote Doesn't Count?

Some of the bad news from the economic analysis of voting:

One of the first things you learn when you study social choice theory is that your vote will almost never make a difference. That is, if you calculate all the possible votes that a group of N people can cast, there is a very, very, very, very tiny chance that the margin of victory will be one vote. And it makes sense - most elections with moderate or large size electorates are decided by thousands, or millions, of votes.

So what’s a civics teacher to do? They should just admit one vote almost never makes a difference and that we have some good rules to reduce these one vote outcomes.

The good news:

And maybe it’s a good thing - do you want a system that frequently puts a lot of power into small groups of voters?

A political system that doesn't hinge on a single vote sounds much more stable to me than one that changes based on each vote.

Does all this mean you shouldn't vote? Not necessarily. I was a Boy Scout long before I was an economist. I continue to vote despite accusations of irrationality by my colleagues. If you value the voting process, you should too.