Why the People Choose Abstain for Election ???

Abstention is a word which is used in several different legal senses. This word means “to refrain” as for example when someone might claim to be abstaining from alcohol, meaning that this person is not drinking alcohol. In a legal sense, abstention can involve with holding a vote, refraining from a particular activity, or refusing to have an opinion on a legal matter. Many governments have procedures in place to allow people to formally abstain.

In elections, people may choose to abstain from voting because they do not like the choices or they wish to challenge the validity of the election. Staying at home on election day is a form of abstention but people who would like to formally record their protest can choose to go to the polls and cast a blank ballot. Also known as a blank vote or white ballot, the ballot is considered spoiled by the elections personnel, but will be counted along with other ballots. People may refer to this type of abstention as “making a protest vote”.

It is generally recognized that people should be allowed to chose abstention as an option, rather than being compelled to vote for or against something to vote from a group of choices which they feel are all poor. Abstention is also an important mechanism for allowing people who have conflict of interest or biases to excuse themselves from a vote.

However, sadly, a lot of people in this country don’t vote. So not everyone who stays home on election day is waging some kind of political protest. Some of them are just lazy, or don’t care. Of course, these non-voters are usually the ones that complain the loudest when the elected officials mess up later.