Is Voting Pointless?

Tyler Cowen stumbles into my favorite philosophical problem, writing that “Your vote will not count, no matter what. If the election is close, the courts will decide it. “They” won’t let me (or Jacob) decide an election.” This is surely wrong. Grant Tyler’s point that a close vote will be determined by the court, then your vote still might determine whether or not the result is close enough to throw the thing into the courts. Now it’s hard to know exactly where this point of judicial involvement lies, but just because we can’t draw the boundary doesn’t mean no boundary exists. It’s the Sorites Paradox in action.