(Originally posted on LiveJournal.)

I’ve come to the decision that I will not be voting this year.

Don’t look at me like that. I’ve been following the election, although mostly keeping my opinions to myself. While I’m not wild about either Presidential ticket, I have a preference; I wouldn’t have written in “None of the Above” the way I did in 2004. I can even choke down my frequent criticism of the Electoral College. So it’s not that I don’t care, and it’s not that I don’t have an opinion.

I’m not voting because I don’t see the point.

McCain will win Georgia*; even the Obama camp admits that. My congressman is running unopposed. I’d love to vote him out, but I can’t. Georgia’s senatorial candidates are, frankly, interchangeable as far as I’m concerned. The amendments to the Georgia constitution cover issues that have no business in a state constitution to begin with.

In other words, my vote doesn’t matter. I’m registered and fully plan to keep my registration active. But why should I vote when the two races I care the most about are already decided in my district?

I do consider voting to be something of a civic duty, but there is no civic duty to make pointless gestures — and that’s all my vote would be. In addition, I know that voting is the least important duty of citizenship. True citizenship is a lot more than waving a flag or checking a box, and I know it.

* And it would figure that North Carolina, never a swing state before, has become one now that I’m no longer a resident. I’d be voting if I still lived there.