Why is voting a civic right and not a civic duty?

If you've heard it once, you've heard it a thousand times: It's your civic duty to vote. Between now and Election Day — unless you're planning an extended session in a sensory-deprivation tank — you'll no doubt hear it again. And again. Don't believe it. It's not your duty to vote. Not that I'm against voting. read more

In the United States we have traditionally considered voting to be a right—much like other rights granted in the Constitution and subsequent amendments much like freedom of speech or free exercise of religion, or the right to bear arms that one may avail themselves of but is not required to. read more

“But it’s your civic duty to vote!” No, it isn’t. You have the right to vote, not a duty to do so. In much the same way, you have the right to worship freely, the right to express your views, the right to run for public office — but no obligation to do any of them. read more

People have a civic duty to be informed and to act on that information. If they lack knowledge or if that knowledge is best acted upon by refusing to vote, the civic duty is not to vote. read more