Ballots provide the public mandate for the state to persist as it is constituted. A state with 80% voter participation appears much more legitimate than a state with 35% voter participation. It is a lot harder for an illegitimate regime to defend their right to power when it rests on 51% of the 35% of the country which voted. If your power rests on the support of 18% of the country, you are a blatant dictatorship.
I still voted, but everything above the municipal level was write-in or third party. I feel strongly that we should not inflate the mandate of these oligarchical institutions.
Ballots provide the public mandate for the state to persist as it is constituted. A state with 80% voter participation appears much more legitimate than a state with 35% voter participation. It is a lot harder for an illegitimate regime to defend their right to power when it rests on 51% of the 35% of the country which voted. If your power rests on the support of 18% of the country, you are a blatant dictatorship.
I still voted, but everything above the municipal level was write-in or third party. I feel strongly that we should not inflate the mandate of these oligarchical institutions.