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[cross-posted at Austro-Athenian Empire]
While I’m not entirely persuaded by the strict anti-voting position, I think it’s a useful corrective to mainstream vote-olatry, so I’ve put together a page of anti-voting links. Suggestions for further links are welcome.
OK, when you originally announced this back in early September, I compiled a lengthy list of anti-voting links which I sent to you by email. Then earlier today, I tried to post the ones that weren't on your list as a blog comment on praxeology.net, but the comment seems to have disappeared, so I'm trying yet again here:
Anonymous (or at least I don't see the author): a critique of Crimethinc's "Don't Just Vote" campaign
http://www.greenanarchy.org/index.php?action=viewwritingdetail&;writingId=342
Carolyn Baker: Why I Will Not Vote in 2004
http://www.counterpunch.org/baker05082004.html
George Carlin: from Back in Town (this may be the single funniest thing ever said on voting, and *this* is the definitive "reply to the argument 'If You Don’t Vote, You Can’t Complain'")
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efKguI0NFek
Brian Doherty: Not Voting and Proud
http://www.reason.com/news/show/32846.html
Cat Farmer: The Problem with Voting
http://www.endervidualism.com/catfarmer/problem_with_voting.htm
Emma Goldman: Anarchism: What it Really Stands For (only a part is about voting, and she also took it on more directly in her essays about woman suffrage, but what's there is one of her best statements on the subject)
http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/goldman/aando/anarchism.html
Penn Jillette: Last thing we need now is a great leader
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/02/jillette.presidency/
Brian Martin: Green Election Fever
http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/89cr.html
Compulsory voting: a useful target for anti-state action?
http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/91raven.html
Wendy McElroy: The Immorality of Voting (this is a very in-depth audio treatment of the subject, running to a full 46 minutes; similar but not identical to Act Responsibly, Don't Vote, and Black Bloke may have been thinking of this)
http://www.wendymcelroy.com/audio/McElroy2008/uwmnonvote25feb08.mp3
Iain McKay: Don't Vote, Organize (yes, the Anarchist FAQ guy, but whatever "issues" you have with the AFAQ, it's pretty sound on anti-voting)
http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/anarchism/writers/anarcho/vote.html
... in fact, here's the AFAQ on voting
http://www.geocities.com/capitolHill/1931/secJ2.html
Elisee Reclus: Why Anarchists Don't Vote
http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/bright/reclus/dontvote.html
James Rothenberg: Why Your Vote Will Never Matter
http://www.counterpunch.org/rothenberg08202007.html
George H. Smith: The Ethics of Voting (different and more in-depth than the one you have on the page)
http://www.voluntaryist.com/articles/001a.php
Thoreau: from Civil Disobedience, reprinted by the Counterpunch people as "On the Futility of Bush v. Kerry" (although I like Goldman's punchy paraphrase of the passage, above)
http://www.counterpunch.org/thoreau06302004.html
Colin Ward: The Case Against Voting
http://www.takver.com/history/elections/ward_on_voting.htm
Carl Watner & Wendy McElroy (eds.): Dissenting Electorate anthology
http://members.aol.com/vlntryst/dissenting.html
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&;id=EKVyIu6oFoYC
the intro:
http://www.voluntaryist.com/nonvoting/intro_diss_elec.php
Serena and Venus Williams: it's not too widely known that Jehovah's Witnesses are not supposed to vote, and the Williams sisters are JWs; their refusal to vote in the upcoming election was reported in several news stories like this one
http://www.tennis.com/news/news.aspx?id=136954
Howard Zinn: Beyond Voting (interestingly, in Howard Zinn on History this is juxtaposed with a piece trying to prove that "Big Government" isn't so bad)
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/BeyondVoting_ZR.html
Election Madness
http://www.progressive.org/mag_zinn0308
And finally, here's Samuel Konkin on voting: The Damnation of Bill Bradford; this is the most direct take by SEK3 that I could find, more so than the Our Enemy the Party which, as the title suggests, is more about political parties than voting itself
http://www.wendymcelroy.com/news.php?extend.1600
To a lesser degree, Rothbard's critique of the New Libertarian Manifesto and Konkin's counter-critique both touch on the issue of voting -- as one might expect, Rothbard wasn't on board with Konkin's anti-voting strategy (though not as much as Konkin's hostility to wage labor!) -- but not as much as I remembered there being
http://www.anthonyflood.com/rothbardkonkin.htm
http://www.anthonyflood.com/konkinreplytorothbard.htm
Before the election of 2004, Reason Online asked a number of people, including me, to answer some questions about how we intended to vote and how we had voted in the past. In responding, I stated that I never vote and explained why.
After the feature had appeared on the Web, many people commented on the various answers, and mine in particular came in for a great deal of invective. I can summarize the gist of it in the phrase "Higgs, what an idiot." The idea that a serious-minded person might have excellent reasons for not voting seems impossible for many people to swallow. It reduces them to incredulous sputtering and leads them to dismiss the person who takes this position as too weird and silly to merit the attention of adults.
Reason is repeating its feature this year, and again I have contributed some answers to their queries, including the affirmation that I never vote and an explanation of why. This time I will not be surprised by the abuse.
I've got a page on why I don't vote at (http://www.mcgath.com/novote.html).
In strict point of fact, I did vote a couple of years ago, for the purpose of seeing my state's current voting procedures firsthand.