I don't vote as protest that our first past the post election system doesn't accurately represent the will of the people as well as other voting schemes.
I'm honestly curious if you think this is a valid form of protest as opposed to a form of apathy or laziness.
Personally I don't believe you can change the system from outside the system without replacing the system (i.e. having a revolution), and currently the number of people who are acting to replace the system from without is sufficiently small (and with a sufficiently large number of ignorable fringe elements) not to have any real effect.
Any protest that involves quietly sitting at home cannot have any real effect unless a large enough population does it to make the rest of the people realise that something is very wrong, rather than the usual hefty percentage of apathetic or otherwise uninvolved people.
On the other hand you've got people like Lawrence Lessig and the Mayday PAC (https://mayday.us/) who are actively trying to change the system from within, by electing candidates who support wide-ranging form. This is a way to change the system, but it requires engaging with the system on its (current) terms, not sitting it out because of, y'know, reasons.
>without is sufficiently small (and with a sufficiently large number of ignorable fringe elements) not to have any real effect.
I agree actually.
The current system is broken and there is no way I can personally change it with my limited resources or with my limited single vote. Voting single issue on candidates who support change can result in supporting unseemly candidates not a comprise I'll make. And functionally is the same as not voting, since we are such a small minority.
Therefore what motivation do I have to vote? Other then civic virtue.
You get the irony then. If Mayday succeeds, it'll render itself obsolete if not illegal. This is entirely deliberate on the part of the people involved.
However, and more to the point, Mayday is an example of trying to change the system from within rather than from without. The system is currently too powerful to try changing without engaging with it on its own terms, so it can only be changed from within.
