Your vote doesn’t really matter. If that thought has ever passed through your mind then you’ve experienced voter apathy, and I don’t blame you. It can be hard to feel like your one vote matters, especially when your candidate loses.

You may have been told that in all reality your vote actually does not matter in comparison to your money, but is that really the case? I contend that what really matters isn’t your vote or money, but the conversations and campaigning you do among friends, family, and peers.

First, to say your vote doesn’t matter at all is extremely misleading. Your vote goes towards your state’s vote in the Electoral College, so while you may not be directly voting for your candidate, your vote is counting towards your state’s vote for who will be president. Your vote has an impact, albeit a small one.

For this reason it can feel like your vote isn’t really doing much work. This is why some suggest that what you should be doing, if you really want to participate in the political system, is donate money to a candidate’s campaign.
Looking at the past three elections, the candidate who won was also the candidate who had raised the most funds for their campaign. This gives the impression that it is money that really carries power and not votes.

To a certain extent, this is the case. Large funds allow candidates to advertise and campaign to larger audiences, and to promote themselves over other candidates. Ultimately it is who gets votes that will win, but if money can buy votes than real power comes with money.

Jumping to the conclusion that money runs things may be putting the cart before the horse though. Does money fuel popularity and thus win over votes? Or does popularity win over money which is reflected in a winning campaign?

And if it’s the first case, is it really the money doing the work of getting votes in the first place? No, it’s the advertising and other ways the money is spent on services that win people over. If it’s the second case, still then popularity is gained somehow else besides money.

Which leads to my last point; if all you care about when it comes to politics is how much your vote matters, then you’re really missing the point. If you want to have an impact on who becomes president start talking to your peers and others.

Take the time to research candidates, have conversations with friends, family, and peers about them, and vote. If your candidates loses it still sucks, but I guarantee you if you commit the time to these conversations and process you won’t be apathetic, because you will have gained something.

You’ll have gained meaningful conversations with others. You’ll have gained knowledge of our political system, and a better understanding of what it means to be a citizen. You’ll have gained life experience. Partaking in political discourse also means you’re impacting and influencing others and their vote as well, and that’s something your vote won’t do.

But if all you’re doing is taking fifteen minutes to think about which candidate you generally like better, and then disappointed that your vote seemed to have little to no impact, maybe you’re better off not voting at all.