I'm an election boycott advocate. I'd been advocating that people stop voting, and finally decided that's what I do, so I had some cheap business cards printed up and that's what they say, "Election Boycott Advocate."
I don't get much of an opportunity to do much advocating, but I do try.
There are many reasons I believe that people shouldn't vote, but the most important one is that if you don't like what your government is doing, I don't think you should authorize them to keep doing it. If you oppose something, I don't think you should support it or legitimize it, and voting is what legitimizes a government--that's why they hold elections.
I know that most people who oppose racism wouldn't join or pay dues to the KKK or WAR or discriminate against ethnic groups or make racist jokes. I think that most people who oppose sexism wouldn't.....okay, I'm not supposed to go there. But most of the people I know who claim to be opposed to what our government is doing, keep right on voting to legitimize the government--voting to authorize it to keep right on doing the stuff they oppose.
Now the reason I don't get to do much advocacy is because most websites and activist groups have some sort of political party affiliation. Since they are or would like to be part of the system, they don't want anyone suggesting that people not support the system.
The most common question I get is, "What then?" People ask me what would happen if they didn't vote, what, if anything, not voting would accomplish, if I have a better system, etc. I don't have the answers. What would happen is probably nothing. Except that each individual who doesn't vote, has the personal satisfaction of knowing that whatever our government does, be it torture, wars of aggression, or rounding us all up and putting us in FEMA camps, we didn't vote to authorize them to do it, and we didn't recognize their legitimacy or help them claim legitimacy by voting in their elections.
Is there more that can be done? Sure. People can hand out leaflets, blog, protest, or whatever they think might help. But if you're going to oppose or protest something, it might be a good idea not to vote for it. So how can I understand the activists who oppose our government but continue to vote to delegate their authority and power to it? All I can think is that they don't REALLY oppose our government, they like it, like what it is doing, will continue to vote to legitimize it and to delegate their power and authority to it, but they like to gripe and show off how politically correct they are by parroting anti-government rhetoric they don't really mean.