I posted the following on Join the Coffee Party Movement in answer to "What is your response to people who say, 'Why should I vote?' or 'Voting doesn't matter.'"
One: the only votes that don't count are those not cast.
Two: we do not have a democracy because too many people (the dēmos) don't vote. A 50.9% turnout does not give a "winner" a mandate.
Three: when you don't vote it is possible that a lots of people who you do not agree with will, and give a result even worse than you wanted. Example - Ninth Congressional District of New York was won by a Republican. The Ninth is 3-1 Democrats registered and the turnout was low.
Four: voting is one of the civic virtues that was valued by the writers of the Constitution. Since so many of our current politicians have so little civic virtue, we the voters have to show a lot of civic virtue.
Five: if you don't like anybody on the printed ballot, in many jurisdictions you can vote for "Wright In".
