I received my absentee ballot in the mail this week. This was my first ballot. As I looked it over, I
discovered that there were many races I knew little to nothing about. Instead of trying to do hasty
research on every single race, most of which I lack expertise and knowledge about, I sent my ballot back
with three votes. A vote in the presidential race, a vote on a race in which I had the opportunity
to meet both candidates and a vote on the collective bargaining initiative. Call me Thomas Hobbes,
but I feel that voters who are not informed, or do not fully understand what they are voting on, should
abstain from the process.

Low information voters hurt the functioning of our government. They do not have a clear understanding
of the complexities of our vast political reality, and, as a result, make uninformed decisions that help no
one. A voter that does not follow the stock market, the unemployment numbers, GDP growth and other
economic indicators has a far less informed opinion about economic recovery than those who do. When
voters are completely clueless of these trends their opinions are uninformed and mean next to nothing.
When opinions are not based on a broad scope of information, they cease to be based on fact and are
instead based on emotion and irrationality.

When people do not have an understanding of the government and budgets, they fail to make the
correct decisions. I come from California, a state that has been crippled by ballot initiatives that do not
make sense. Districts are gerrymandered such that Democrats will always be close
to, but never hold, the two-thirds majority necessary to pass a budget, according to ballotpedia.org. Because of initiatives that
limit the Legislature’s ability to raise taxes, as reported by Time, it is impossible to balance the budget without making cuts
that would otherwise be considered unnecessary and stupid. This perpetuates many problems of the
state.

As shown by California Progress Report, in the past the state has hidden the deficit in bonds, meaning that the state will have to pay back
this hidden debt with more interest. Ballot initiatives on things like high speed rail construction
keep passing, as shown by the Institute of Governmental Studies, telling the government to spend more money that it doesn’t have. Budget problems
have gotten so bad that the California State University system has been forced to freeze enrollment, as reported by The Los Angeles Times.
California is a case in which uneducated populism has ruined the state’s ability to function.

The most irresponsible thing you can do as a voter is vote in a race where you do not know who the
candidates are. In the 2010 senate race in South Carolina, Alvin Greene was elected in the Democratic primary, as reported by The New York Times. Greene was very clearly not qualified to be a senator. His mental abilities and
stability were called into question and he had little to no money to even run a campaign. When you wonder “how was this man nominated”? the best explanation might be that voters mistook him for singer Al Green. Uninformed voters should have left it to the informed voters to decide.

Voters have a right to vote, but they also have a right to abstain from voting. Voters should exercise this
right if they are uninformed or uneducated on the particular race they are voting on. Abstain from the races you don’t have a real opinion on, and the races where you only have vague
understandings of what is going on. If we all voted that way, democracy would function better for all
of us.

Spencer Lindsay ([email protected]) is a freshman majoring in political science.