A-Infos (en) NZ, AWSM: Why I Won't Vote ~ A SYMPOSIUM #1 (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Voting: "The instrument and symbol of a freeman's power to make a fool 
of himself and a wreck of his country" ---- The saying that " only a 
fool would put a loaded gun into the hands of an idiot " is an 
especially apt analogy of government. An idiot (usually well-meaning) 
considers himself clever enough to run the affairs of a large number of 
people by taking a seat in parliament. A large number of people, acting 
like fools, vote for his party's policy then spend the next few years 
grumbling about the results. The error in approach is that the voter 
thinks that he will get what he voted for. If he could vote for those 
who in fact control the country, say the Governors of the Bank of 
England, the directors of the industrial corporations and those behind 
the ministries, the illusion of democracy would be more understandable.

The real centres of power lie far beyond the people's influence at 
elections. These remain constant whatever Party is " in power ". In the 
terms of centralised " democracy " the only possible argument to justify 
voting is that marginal benefits may be gained. The state only 
incidentally attends to the well-being of its subjects. Its main concern 
is its power relation to other states, of which the most perfect 
expression is in war.

I am on the side of people anywhere who are prepared neither to live nor 
die for something that in the long run can only militate against 
survival and the conditions that make life worth living. Our immediate 
action must, by its nature, be to oppose that pathetic gesture, voting. 
It must be direct and direction. We can learn to live as free men and 
women only by organising against the condition we are in.

The Tenants Association, Consumers Association, and Direct Action in 
industry all provide opportunities for people to experience directing 
their own lives in positive ways towards positive ends.

Only by direct involvement in society can the individual hope to 
transform himself and his world. Freedom cannot be given, it must be 
taken; and the free society can only grow from experiments in the 
problems (ethical and organisational) of community.

Voting does not, and cannot, mean government by consent. By voting, one 
acts on the assumptions that certain men are fit to govern, and that a 
majority is necessarily right. Also should the state, acting in the name 
of a (frequently fictitious) majority, declare war, the individual loses 
the right to live, if he ever had it.

To me, voting is complicity with the State and a negative action, 
therefore I do not vote.

https://awsm.nz/why-i-wont-vote-a-symposium-1/
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