re: #25 lawhawk

There is no similar cause-effect re: voting. Lower or higher voter turnout does not affect the costs to others.

I realize that you are referring to monetary, not abstract external costs, but really!?!?

The outcomes of elections, to the benefit of one constituency or another, always affect the costs to everyone. For example, just imagine if Gore/Lieberman had prevailed in 2000. Instead, we were cursed with W and ended up in Afghanistan and Iraq, and suffered not only unfathomable monetary war debt, but the horrific loss of thousands of Americans lives.

Apropos, how many votes separated Gore and Bush in Florida?

537 out of 6,000,000…Less than 0.0001% of the total votes cast.