I didn't vote.

There, I've said it publicly, where people can see it. May all the omg-nothing-is-more-important-than-politics people come and flame me if they want, but it changes nothing: I did not vote in the US presidential election. Not because I wasn't able to, but because I deliberately chose not to.

Here's the thing. I am, technically, still an American citizen. However, I have been living comfortably (and legally) in the UK for many years now, and have no intention to leave. I am far happier here than I ever was in the States. England is now my home, and I consider the US to be kind of like an old house: it was nice while we were living there, but we've moved on, and don't want to move back into it.

So why would I vote in the presidential election? I know what a lot of Americans would say: it's your duty / right / privilege / insert other somewhat impressive word here. You also get those that say if you don't vote, you're being unpatriotic, disrespectful, an idiot, and so on. To some people, not voting is akin to betraying your country. Even when I lived there, and didn't want to vote because I didn't think I was informed enough to make a sensible choice (and didn't really agree with either candidate), I was pushed into it because certain people refused to stop harassing me until it was done.

I chose not to vote for a pretty simple reason. Ready for my logic?

I don't live there.

Before anybody starts with me about postal voting and how it's perfectly acceptable to vote from outside the country, please remember what I said earlier: the US is no longer my home, nor do I ever intend to return to it. Truth be told, the matters of policy that are being hoisted as the all-important issues in this election have absolutely no immediate effect on me. There is very little they can do at this point that will have any kind of impact on my life in the UK. It's my personal opinion that they are going to spend the next few years focusing on the people who still live there, rather than those that have already left.

When one considers this point, it then becomes a matter of whether it feels right to vote. If I'm not living there, and the matters prevalent in the choice are not going to directly affect me for quite a long time, is it really fair of me to put in an opinion? Isn't that basically trying to influence how other people are going to live their lives for the next four years? It would feel like being a hypocrite. I wouldn't tell people face to face how I expect them to live, why would I do so with a vote?

At the last election, when Obama was first elected, I was asked constantly by people in the UK - primarily complete strangers who only knew enough about me to know I was American - if I voted. (Some people were even bold enough to simply ask who I voted for.) Every single one of them was shocked, if not horrified, when I told them I hadn't voted. Even when I tried to explain the above reasoning, I was met with an awful lot of raised eyebrows and hasty subject changes. No one wanted to hear it, because even in this country, it seems impossible to imagine an American not putting their life on hold in order to get their vote counted.

This year, thankfully, I have not been quizzed by everyone who crosses my path about American politics and votes. However, I HAVE seen the resurgence of those people who assume that people who don't vote are automatically terrible people. I have seen those comments about, "If you don't vote, you're an idiot / you don't matter / you don't deserve to live / insert insult here." **

There are a lot of reasons people may not vote. Some of them are poor, but some of them are good, substantial, understandable reasons. My post describes only one situation where not voting is, in my opinion, completely acceptable. I know there are a lot of people who will disagree with me. I know there are a lot of people who will continue to believe there is never ever a good reason for not voting. I don't really care. The whole point of having an election is to give people the chance to make a choice. This was mine.


** These are not made up for this post, but have actually been publicly said on various social networks. I have actually seen someone (not in reference to this election, but to a previous one) spout the nonsense about people who don't vote not deserving to be alive. The fact that anybody can think that way, and be that extreme, horrifies and saddens me.