The little corner of the world where I reside is in British Columbia, Canada.

We just had a provincial election last weekend, the results of which are still uncertain because the mail-in and absentee ballots have to be counted and the results may change enough very close races that the overall outcome is in doubt. Great, eh! Exciting stuff! Good for democracy!

But, no.

See that turnout number, 57.43%? More than 4 in 10 eligible voters determined that they could not be bothered to vote, in a very consequential election. The “I did not vote” party would have won many of the ridings and maybe even formed a majority of seats! The non-voters certainly would have swayed the results in the ridings that are still up for grabs.

Consider that the main opposition party to the governing “centrist” New Democratic Party was a collection of climate-denying, alt-right internet troll clowns whose main rallying cry was to eliminate the carbon tax in BC. The fact that the Conservatives could come “this close” to winning is head-on-wall-banging unbelievable. But I do blame the 40+% who could not be bothered to learn anything about the issues and make the ever so small effort to fulfill their duties as citizens and VOTE, dammit!

This is of course not just a problem in British Columbia. Everwhere turnout levels in elections have been declining. In the US, the most recent mid-term election had a turnout of 46%, “which exceeded that of all midterm elections since 1970.” From that same PEW Research Center report, the turnout in 2020 was about 66%. Great! So the leader of the free world gets elected by about 35% of total voters!

Look, the issues we are facing societally are now “life and death”—democracy or autocracy. Please PLEASE encourage your neighbors to vote. Talk about the issues. Walk with them to the polls. Don’t let our democratic traditions crumble into dust.

Or not. If you look in the mirror and can say to yourself that you just don’t care enough to vote, maybe you deserve what comes next.