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>I don't lose much besides the right to vote.

The Requirement to vote :-P

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>> Is that impacting your liberty to not vote if you don't want to?

Yes.

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> if I were a politician that will be a sure way to lose my next election, I guess

Would it be? You sure as hell would get my vote.

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> you don't win elections by convincing the other side that they are wrong, and they should vote for you.

> You win elections by convincing your side to show up.

Well, in my country and many others, voting is compulsory, so we don't have this problem.

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> I don't have voting rights.

Thank God for that. You people slaughtered enough people in the 20th century.

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> That's a really low bar for a political candidate to win your vote.

Actually, I think it's a fairly high bar. At least in my interpretation:

>> That's all they would have to do to get my vote....nothing else.

I interpret this as the candidate in question should not make any other promises.

> I'm sure I will get downvoted by some / many HNers, but seriously... Do you honestly think that this is the right approach to use your right to vote, considering that many people in the past gave their life to give it to you?

Eh, voting is a waste of time, if you goal is to change anything. (It's a good use of your time, if voting makes you feel good, or helps you with your tribe.)

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> Please make sure to keep voting after you move

Absolutely. My geography does not absolve me of my responsibility to do so.

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>The only drawback is the ability to prove who you voted for,

That's pretty much the biggest problem to have in any election...

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> Any election's outcome will be the same whether I vote or not.

Tied and one-vote margin elections are not at all unheard of.

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> No, they say the opposite. They set up specific conditions you can't use to disqualify for voting. It's a short list.

Those amendments don't directly give maximum protection, but they establish it as a right, which seems to indirectly give pretty good protection.

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> The issue is specifically that you aren't in a voting booth

Too bad. You can claw my mail-in ballot from my cold, dead hands.

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> - Voting is a right - nothing to do with taxes

Your rights can only be secured if the Government can pay for them.

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> Those in power want you not to vote.

If that's the case, the amount of resources candidates spend trying to get people to vote is peculiar.

> If you don't vote, you're still entitled to complain but I personally won't take you as seriously because you haven't tried to affect change.

The only way I could even begin to see any validity to your point is if an election were a tie or decided by a single vote.

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> If your choice is ether vote or risk a fine

This is ABSOLUTELY not what I want. I for one want voting to be extremely accessible. Everyone that wants to vote can. The goal isn't to make everyone vote but rather that everyone has the ability to vote. That you don't have to take time off to vote. That it is easy.

Universally accessible, not universally mandated.

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>>if the government YOU are electing

Except like I clearly said above, I'm an immigrant without the right to vote, so I'm not electing shit. Again, how exactly am I supposed to vote my way out of this?

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> What voting system are you using?

Good point. I'm in the US, so it's overwhelmingly 'winner takes all.'

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> You can't just vote from anywhere.

I'm not in any way saying you should be able to. You can't in my country either.

I'm just surprised that you need your ZIP & ID & DO to find out where you vote, because in my country you can find out where you vote with only your ZIP.

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>without is sufficiently small (and with a sufficiently large number of ignorable fringe elements) not to have any real effect.

I agree actually.

The current system is broken and there is no way I can personally change it with my limited resources or with my limited single vote. Voting single issue on candidates who support change can result in supporting unseemly candidates not a comprise I'll make. And functionally is the same as not voting, since we are such a small minority.

Therefore what motivation do I have to vote? Other then civic virtue.

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> If someone is in the US, I want them to have effective tools to defend life.

Historically, representative government has been one of the most effective tools to defend life in the US.

> If they are not eligible to vote

ID checks do not verify eligibility at the time of voting. I can show up with a perfectly valid driver's license and be ineligible to vote for any number of reasons (I am a convicted felon, I am not eligible to vote in this county because I moved and my new license is still being processed, I renounced my citizenship this morning, etc.)

Going the other way -- a person who becomes eligible to vote just in time to cast a legitimate ballot may have trouble producing a valid picture ID confirming this status in time for the election.

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>voting could reduce the likelihood of the draft being reinstated

... only in the unlikely event that my vote changes the outcome of an election, and the candidate I voted for would also be able to affect such a big legislative change.

Millenials as a group might be worse off if many traded away their right to vote, but that's not the same thing as saying that individuals benefit in a tangible way from that right.

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