Column by Tim Riley

Tuesday, millions of people will go to their local polling place and cast their vote for our next president. At that same time, many other millions will opt to spend their potential ballot time taking a refreshing nap. In recent years, there has been a massive push to convince this second group to make their voice heard by voting. Unfortunately, the mathematics of the situation clearly support the choice made by those who choose to sleep in.

A recent study, reported by the Associated Press, found that the odds of a person casting a deciding vote in the President election to be astronomical. A person living in New Mexico has the best odds at 6.1 million to one. Those chances sound astronomical, but they are quite good compared to those in other places. For residents of Washington D.C., the odds are 490 billion to one. With that kind of probability, why bother inconveniencing yourself to vote?

Keith Dowding, in his journal article “Is It Rational to Vote? Five Types of Answers and a Suggestion,” lays forth the idea that a purely rational thinker should probably not bother to vote. He proposes that the decision is simply a game of numbers. Unless the benefits of your desired candidate’s victory multiplied by the probability that your vote will be the deciding factor is greater than all the costs associated with voting, then it is a bad economic choice to head to the polls.

When one thinks about the astronomical odds of a single vote mattering, it is difficult to believe that any potential benefits are great enough to take time out of the day to cast your ballot. From a purely logical standpoint, it would be wiser to go buy a lottery ticket with your time. The odds of winning are better than your vote mattering, and the resulting benefits from winning are much more life altering than any election. With all the fun and productive ways a person can be spend his or her time, why waste a single moment of it casting an ultimately meaningless vote?

One can claim that sometimes an extremely small number of votes actually do matter. Granted, in the 2000 election in Florida, a few hundred votes made the difference in the election; however, this is an extremely unusual occurrence in our nation’s history. Most states are decided by thousands or even millions of votes. Using another possible close call as a logical base for voting is as irrational as residing in a bomb shelter just in case the Cold War returns.

Every single vote does count, but when it’s the equivalent of adding a grain of sand to the beach, why bother? Time is a commodity, and coming from a logical viewpoint, it is wasted inside the voting booth. So unless there is some non-numerical basis for casting a ballot, Tuesday should just be a great opportunity to catch up on sleep or finally master a song in Guitar Hero. Fortunately, such a reason exists.

There is an immeasurable symbolic value to voting inherent in our nation’s structure. By choosing to live in a democracy, one assumes the responsibility of participating in elections. This duty is given value by every single person who has laid his or her life on the line over the course of our nation’s history to protect it. Some things override the basic tenants of mathematical logic. Clearly in this instance, the numbers really amount to nothing. Unthinkable sacrifices have been made to preserve this nation, and the only way to even begin repaying this immense debt is to exercise the rights that were being fought for.

It is always nice when decisions can be made from a spreadsheet. When it comes to the complicated matters of life, though, the numbers rarely sum to give the correct decision. People want to vote so their candidate will win. But more importantly, people have an obligation to vote because of the act’s greater meaning. The fact that there is basically no chance that your vote will ever truly matter is as unimportant as how much a politician’s haircut costs.

Sometimes, math is just not suited to solve a problem. Election Day is not the time to have more important things to do. It is a chance to exercise our nation’s most precious right, and in doing so help honor those who gave so much to insure that opportunity.