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Electing Not to Vote: Christian Reflections on Reasons for Not Voting

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In 2000, fifteen Canadians, members of the Edible Ballot Society, pureed and ate their voting ballots at polling booths. They were, they proclaimed, "hungry for democracy." Finding no candidate on the ballot to assuage their hunger, they decided to express their dissatisfaction with a profoundly inspired bit of guerilla theatre.

This story, which opens Andy Alexis-Baker's contribution to the excellent Electing Not to Vote, provides one reason for abstention from voting: the possibility that the available candidates are nutritionless, white-breaded fast foods. Another might be the sad realization that federal elections tend to be money-driven, corporate-influenced, and Electoral College-led affairs which pay more lip than actual service to the democratic ideal.

But for the Christian committed to Jesus's radical message of nonviolence, there are other reasons for abstention, and the authors in this volume explore them with grace and insight. Voting in federal elections is a gesture that can implicitly acquiesce to the powers and principalities of the world, violate Christ's counter-cultural resistance to Caesar, and promote a most unChristian adversarial spirit among those who get swept up in partisan wrangling. (The recent presidential primary feuding between the two leading Democrat contenders is a case in point.) Voting can also be a secular analog of cheap grace, providing voters with the comfortable impression that they've done their bit simply by pulling a polling booth lever, and thereby discouraging imaginative alternatives to social change.

The defenses of these positions in Electing Not to Vote is never heavy-handed. The authors are quite aware of the high stakes of arguing against the sacred rite of voting, and go to some pains to insist that abstention from voting must always be accompanied by more fruitful alternative labor for social justice, labor that first and foremost is a witness to their faith. In several of the essays, I sensed moments of the same ambivalence which I, and I'm sure any practitioner of Christian nonviolence, have felt about participating in electoral politics. Should I, or shouldn't I? What's the right thing to do? It's to editor Ted Lewis' credit that he recognizes these sorts of questions need to be addressed rather than, as is typical, ignored. Although abstention isn't likely to be a popular option, and even though it's a difficult decision even for those who ultimately embrace it, talking about it allows for "a new kind of freedom: specifically, a freedom for readers to ask questions that for the most part have not been welcome within the discourse of our society and of our faith communities" (p. ix).

As Lewis acknowledges in his introductory remarks, the essays in Electing Not to Vote contribute to but certainly don't conclude the conversation. In some of the essays, for example, I thought that possibly false dilemmas were being drawn between the impurity of voting and the purity of abstention. I would've also liked to have seen some analysis of how broad Christian abstention should be: if one refuses on principle to vote, shouldn't one also refuse on principle to pay taxes (at least those earmarked for war, prisons, etc)? If not, why not? Finally, it seems to me that greater reflection on how far one can bend one's faith commitment without compromising it is necessary. After all, Christians compromise their beliefs everyday, most obviously in consumer choices. Where's the point of no return?

But the fact that these sorts of questions are generated by the essays in Electing Not to Vote only underscores their richness. Highly recommended.

My personal reasons for not voting were simple. If there was one person who would be able to make a noticeable difference, everyone would vote for that person. I did vote this past election, the first time in decades. This book was an excellent read from various perspectives on what it means to call oneself a Christian and belonging to the Kingdom of God. The essays cause one to think more deeply about their faith and reasons for voting or not voting.

Obama of McCain, McCain or Obama, are there only two choices for the election come this November? "Electing Not to Vote: Christian Reflections on Reasons for Not Voting" offers another choice, looking past even the possibility of a third party candidate, to abstaining to vote for moral reasons. Many writers from many denominations of faith in the Christian religion speak out about abstaining from voting. A refreshing look at voting and politics, "Electing Not to Vote" is highly recommended to any who are undecided about this coming November.