An Open Letter to Robert Postic regarding his Christianity Today article “Voting Is Important to Me. That’s Why, This Year, I Won’t Vote.”
Dear Robert Postic,
I am writing in response to your CT article, “Voting Is Important to Me. That’s Why, This Year, I Won’t Vote.” I too once held your views and also toyed with the idea of not voting, but I have come to different conclusions. You didn’t ask for my opinion; I would like to share it anyway.
My undergraduate degree is in Political Science, and in my last 23 years post-college, I have worked in Christian support-based missionary roles. This is to say I share your interest in our political process, and I too identify as an evangelical Christian.
I am responding to the decision you articulated, not to argue but to offer my own perspectives for you to consider.
In your article, you rightly highlight “the political and legal realities in America that make it functionally impossible for third-party candidates to succeed.” However, the decision to not vote only perpetuates the problem of a low-quality candidate pool.
A non-vote does little to address the issue with a candidate pool that is shallow in policy or character. When we don’t vote, we don’t communicate that major candidates are not compelling options. We communicate that we are just unengaged with the political process and do nothing to explain why. A person could have any number of reasons for being unengaged.
When a Christian chooses not to vote, it is unlikely that they don’t care. But a Christian non-voter looks like any other non-voter, and it is not difficult to conclude they don’t care who leads. This, of course, is far from true.
I believe voting for a third-party candidate or writing someone in does two important things. First, voting for a non-binary option communicates that you are not only engaged but that you care so deeply about both policy and character that you are willing to knowingly “throw your vote away” by using it on someone who “can not win” but for whom you actually favor for the office. Second, voting counts your position among the collective whole; if enough people actively voted for an alternative candidate, this phenomenon would get the attention of the major parties and force shifts in candidates and platforms to pull these voters back into their voting block.
Additionally, if either major party actually had the ability to somehow “steal” unused votes for their candidate, your participation would help prevent this possibility (or even its insinuation).
God is ultimately in control; He appoints the leaders and does not need us to vote to accomplish His purposes. In response to the message, “vote Biblically,” I say that “it is more Biblical to pray than to vote.” We must pray for whoever ends up in office, whether we like their policies or their character. If we resist praying for these elected leaders, it is our character—that’s the displayed character of Christ in us—that is lacking.
Tye Parks 