I spend like 20 minutes each election looking up all the candidates, voting for the least terrible one, and dropping off a ballot. Voting for the lesser evil isn't great, but it's more than I'm going to accomplish in 20 minutes otherwise, especially when voting for things like the DA.
I wouldn't bother with the nationals if they weren't bundled with my local elections. But they are bundled with my local elections, and it's not like abstaining is going to accomplish anything - nobody's even looking at the count of those.
The time people spend debating electoral politics and following the horse race is a massive waste. A vote's worth the 20 minutes. It's not worth an entire year of attention.
I spend like 20 minutes each election looking up all the candidates, voting for the least terrible one, and dropping off a ballot. Voting for the lesser evil isn't great, but it's more than I'm going to accomplish in 20 minutes otherwise, especially when voting for things like the DA.
I wouldn't bother with the nationals if they weren't bundled with my local elections. But they are bundled with my local elections, and it's not like abstaining is going to accomplish anything - nobody's even looking at the count of those.
The time people spend debating electoral politics and following the horse race is a massive waste. A vote's worth the 20 minutes. It's not worth an entire year of attention.