Skip to content

Ten Terrible Reason to not Vote (and two good ones)

2014-10-31 · list · Hank · 3:31 · watch on YouTube

Topic: US politics & society · mode: Advocacy & fundraising · tags: timely hook, civic or action cta

Hank, addressing young Americans before the November 4, 2014 elections, rebuts common excuses for not voting (only not caring and being unable to reach the polls are good ones) and argues that young people's votes would decide thousands of elections.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Greeting; the video is for young people in America, who should be sent it

  • ★★ Hank says the video is for young people in America and asks others watching to send it to young Americans they know. — 00:00:01 · United States

00:00:12 — Excuses one to five: jury duty, lesser of two evils, not knowing who to vote for, not knowing if registered, not caring

  • ★★ Hank rebuts the excuse that registering to vote brings jury duty: there is no correlation, you get jury duty whether or not you are registered. — 00:00:14
  • ★★ Hank answers 'I don't want to vote for the lesser of two evils': choose the lesser evil, since not voting is like half a vote for the greater one. (playful) — 00:00:22
  • ★ Hank has just done his absentee ballot and often felt he was voting for the greater of two goods. — 00:00:33
  • ★★ Not knowing who to vote for is acceptable, Hank says, but research is easy: search your place plus 'voter information packet' or 'candidates'; about half an hour; skip ballot items you don't care about. — 00:00:40
  • ★ As an example of an item one can skip, Hank cites a measure on his own ballot to rename the State Auditor as Commissioner of Securities and Insurance. — 00:00:57
  • ★★ Hank points viewers unsure of their registration to canivote.org and says there is still time to register, with how-to links in the description. — 00:01:05
  • ★★ Hank says eleven states, including California, have same-day voter registration. — 00:01:11
  • ★★ Hank calls not caring a completely acceptable reason not to vote: if you don't care, don't vote. — 00:01:18

00:01:24 — Excuses six to nine: corporations and millionaires decide elections, can't get to the polls, done with gridlock, not a democracy

  • ★★★ Against the claim that corporations and millionaires decide elections, Hank says corporations get fewer votes than you and millionaires the same number, but millionaires matter more because 99% of them vote. — 00:01:24
  • ★ Hank says this is proof millionaires can't buy elections: they go to the polls because they know voting is the only way people get elected. (playful) — 00:01:37
  • ★★ Not being able to get to the polls on November 4 is a legitimate reason, Hank says, but such voters should look into absentee voting. — 00:01:46
  • ★★★ Hank sympathises with people done with gridlock and cynicism: campaigns seem to energise the base by angering and frightening it, turning off moderates, especially the young, who are needed to end partisanship. (hedged) — 00:01:54
  • ★★ Answering 'it's not even a democracy', Hank says there were zero democracies in the world in 1900, with no universal suffrage anywhere. — 00:02:18
  • ★★ Hank says American democracy could be more representative, notes ballot measures in many states designed to make it less so, and says voting is the only way to make it more representative. — 00:02:29 · United States

00:02:39 — "My vote won't matter" as a failure of imagination; youth turnout figures; vote; sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank calls 'my vote won't matter' a magnificent failure of imagination: if every young person using that excuse voted, they would be the deciding vote in thousands of elections. — 00:02:39
  • ★★ Hank says the power lies with us, that this is what democracies are, and that because you can make the country better you kind of have an obligation to. (hedged) — 00:03:02
  • ★★★ Hank says people born after 1980 make up about 30% of the electorate, but only 21% of people under 24 are expected to vote in this election. (hedged) — 00:03:12
  • ★★★ Hank closes: if you are not voting no one hears your voice and politicians have no reason to represent you; the one easy fix is to vote. — 00:03:19

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: paradox of voting · voter turnout

Also: Organizations: canivote.org

Concepts: absentee ballot · democracy · jury duty · lesser of two evils principle · political polarization · same-day voter registration · universal suffrage · voter registration

Places: California · United States

Events: 2014 United States elections

Only in the description or credits: Rock the Vote

Also centred on paradox of voting: Tiny Chickens Invade, But Still I Vote · You. Must. Vote. · Our Massive Project: How to Vote in Every State · Why I Didn't Vote (And Six Reasons You Might Not)

Also centred on voter turnout: You. Must. Vote. · Terrible at Frenching: My Spicy Summer Camp Story · Our Massive Project: How to Vote in Every State · The Trouble with Wishful Thinking · If you don't go…

Later videos replying to this one