No, it offers one such reason that only applies to non-swing state residents who wish to promote a third party. The other reason it discusses, influencing the margin of victory, is irrelevant, because in a non-swing state the margin is guaranteed to be large and the victory is going to be by a landslide. Since hardly anyone wants to vote for a third party in the first place, this one reason matters only for a small minority of voters in non-swing states.
More importantly, the entire first section is misleading. It introduces a hypothetical presidential election “in the land of Erewhon”, and claims that if the real election is close, the analogy shows you should vote. The fact that this reasoning doesn’t apply to the vast majority of voters in the real presidential election in the US is never mentioned.
I don’t know that I can put my disagreement more clearly than in the second paragraph of the comment you replied to, but to answer your question nonetheless: I think your summary suffers from lying by omission. You are not saying anything that is false, but an uninformed reader is likely to be misled by your text into falsely thinking that their vote matters more than it really does.
I deeply value honesty, and I wouldn’t offer an argument if I thought it would be misunderstood by the relevant readers. But I can’t really imagine there are many people that will read my article (especially given that I’m sharing it here and among my personal friends), find it a persuasive reason to vote (compared to more emotional appeals), and yet not understand how the Electoral College works.
The entire second section (What if I know it’s not going to be close?) focuses on several reasons to vote that apply to non-swing state residents.
No, it offers one such reason that only applies to non-swing state residents who wish to promote a third party. The other reason it discusses, influencing the margin of victory, is irrelevant, because in a non-swing state the margin is guaranteed to be large and the victory is going to be by a landslide. Since hardly anyone wants to vote for a third party in the first place, this one reason matters only for a small minority of voters in non-swing states.
More importantly, the entire first section is misleading. It introduces a hypothetical presidential election “in the land of Erewhon”, and claims that if the real election is close, the analogy shows you should vote. The fact that this reasoning doesn’t apply to the vast majority of voters in the real presidential election in the US is never mentioned.
Do you disagree with any point in my summary (the “Slightly Longer Answer” bit), or just with my style of presentation?
I don’t know that I can put my disagreement more clearly than in the second paragraph of the comment you replied to, but to answer your question nonetheless: I think your summary suffers from lying by omission. You are not saying anything that is false, but an uninformed reader is likely to be misled by your text into falsely thinking that their vote matters more than it really does.
I deeply value honesty, and I wouldn’t offer an argument if I thought it would be misunderstood by the relevant readers. But I can’t really imagine there are many people that will read my article (especially given that I’m sharing it here and among my personal friends), find it a persuasive reason to vote (compared to more emotional appeals), and yet not understand how the Electoral College works.