Let me break it down for you and I truly do not mean any disrespect to you or anybody else. I am trying to explain how this works and why voting matters.
There are 50 states in the United States.
Each state has a specific number of what are called Electors.
Electors are voted on and nominated by the political parties in each state. So the Democratic and Republican parties in each state nominate electors.
The number of electors your state has is determined by how many Representatives and Senators that your state has in congress.
Every state in the United states has 2 Senators. So each state has at least 2 electorates.
Each state has a different number of Representatives in The House of Representatives. The number of Representatives in your state is determined by the population in your state. That's why a state that is smaller in land like New Jersey has more members in the House than a bigger state like Montana because there are more people who live in New jersey than Montana despite Montana being larger in size.
So once you add up how many Senators and Representatives your state has that's the number of Electorates that your state has.
Here is a picture that shows you how many Electorates each state has
Now. This is how it works.
The Electorates pledge to cast their votes for the candidate who wins the popular vote for their state during the General Election.
So if you win California on election night, congrats. You just won a whopping 55 Electoral votes.
To win The Presidential you need to have 270 Electoral votes.
That means that you do not have to win every state.
There are multiple strategies and campaign ideas you can use to win specific states like spending more time campaigning in specific states. or spending a lot of money for ads in specific states.
During election season there are what are called "Swing States"
A Swing State is a state that is not leaning Democrat or Republican. Meaning it could go either way because it's that close.
A Swing State and a Battleground State is the same exact thing just different terms.
So on election night people generally keep their eye on key swing states like Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin.....You see a 2016 pattern there right???
There are other states where they are not a swing state historically and it is generally expected which way that state will lean like California. Democrats are usually expected to win California. It's a very liberal state or for the purposes of this discussion a Blue State.
Then there are some Red States like the ones in The South in the bible belt. Real republican territory there.
So when you go out to cast your vote on election night you vote will be counted for the candidate that you voted for in your state. So for a candidate to win your state and your states Electoral votes, they need your vote.
So in 2016, Donald trump won 4 Battleground States by a combined number of votes less than 200,000. So there was no guarantee that he was going to win the election. Those Battleground States he won were badly needed. He could not have won the election without winning those 4 Battleground States and being awarded their Electoral votes. he wouldn't have been able to makeup the difference.
So all of the niggas in Florida (of all places they should no better after 2000) who don't think their vote or their voice matters and had their "reasons" for not voting for either candidate helped shape history. Their indecisiveness and straight up negligence in sitting out the election has led to what has without a doubt been the most incompetent, embarrassing, long term damaging, dangerous Presidency in modern history of the United States.
They can have their "reasons" and think they are dropping some sort of knowledge but what they are failing to realize is that their failure to act which is voting, has severe consequences.
It's hard enough to come up with alternatives and other methods with voting.
Without voting do you realize that those alternatives become much harder?
Voting is not only a right but it is a powerful tool. It is the single most powerful act that a citizen of this country posses that directly impacts their way of life.
That's why people who don't vote will spend a lifetime trying to justify or come up with an alternative.
Because in a Democracy as such that we have in the United States of America, voting not only matters, it is the single act that shapes our way of life more than any other.