Yeah, you can, if you want to. Does your vote for president matter if you live in California? No, not really. Even ignoring the fact that we live in a republic, not a direct democracy, or the fact that your vote would be statistically meaningless even if we did, California and its 55 electoral votes have gone to the Democratic Party the last six elections, and it is unlikely things will be different this year. Your vote will have no value other than as a statement of your personal beliefs.
You could be a “protest voter” and slightly boost the percentage of votes going to a third-party candidate, to express your dissatisfaction with the two-party system and maybe contribute enough to a trend of increased votes for third-party candidates that the establishment will get a little more concerned. Maybe you’re a Sanders supporter who is too much of an idealist to vote for Clinton, or were turned off by her non-malicious but somewhat condescending remarks about millennial baristas living in their parents’ basements, and want to throw your minuscule percentage of the vote behind Jill Stein. Great, as long as you know beforehand that, as my colleague pointed out, being a third-party candidate doesn’t mean you’re an innocent.
It’s tempting to dismiss voting entirely, especially in the 2016 election, where your choices are a conventional politician and a parody of a conventional politician. However, we don’t have to either accept the fake and romantic idea of voting as the ultimate expression of personal freedom and something near the core of American identity, or not vote at all. Voting can be a practical way of contributing toward a better life for you, and other Americans-African Americans in the South, for example, did benefit from being able to elect people from their own communities to the offices of sheriff or senator. Voting for president might be kind of absurd, but you should investigate the propositions and the candidates for the state government, since these could actually have a direct effect on your life. You can read about them here. You probably heard about Proposition 64, the initiative to legalize recreational marijuana, but did you know that that there are propositions both to speed up the death penalty and end it entirely? You might also be interested in Proposition 59, which literally does nothing, but acts as a kind of poll to let the state government know how people feel about Citizens United, the “money is free speech/corporations are people” case. Do research and make an informed decision, though. For example, Proposition 56, which increases taxes on cigarettes by 2$, will probably discourage some people from smoking. However, only 13% percent of income from this tax will go to tobacco prevention-the rest will go to insurance companies through Medical. Since tobacco use is higher below the poverty line, this will mean transmitting more money from poor people to corporations. Life is complicated.
Voting is overemphasized because of its role as an emotionally charged nationalistic public ritual. If you choose not to vote, you may get called out for wasting the blood spilled on D-Day by the Greatest Generation for your rights, or get told something like “if you don’t vote, don’t complain.” But not voting is as much an expression of personal liberty as voting-as long as it is a choice. If you don’t vote, make sure it's because you choose to not vote.
