Does your vote matter that much? On the ground of electoral duties

One individual vote in an electorate of millions (almost) never makes a difference: Voters seem individually powerless. Accounts justifying electoral duties should answer this challenge and explain why voting matters. We claim that they can be divided into two classes. Non-instrumental views accept that one vote does not make a difference but offer outcome-independent reasons for voting, based on fairness, mutual accountability and expressive agency. Instrumental views either reject the idea that one vote never makes a difference or accept that but deny that for this reason one vote does not causally affect the outcome. The latter approach is known as a contributory account of voting. This paper has two purposes: it argues that all non-instrumental solutions fail to offer a valid answer to individual powerlessness, and it vindicates the contributory account by defending it from a recent objection.