Consider the 2022 U.S. Senate race in Nevada, in which a total of 988,704 votes were cast. Catherine Cortez Masto, the Democratic incumbent, won with 498,316 votes. His challenger, Republican Adam Laxalt, received 490,388 votes, meaning Cortez Masto’s margin of victory was only 7,928 votes.

It is almost certain that in this 2022 election, for example, a voter on whose door he knocked told a Cortez Masto or Laxalt canvasser: “There will be almost a million votes cast in this election.” this election; why should I go out of my way to vote when my vote will be about one in a million? »

Unfortunately, there’s also a good chance that this canvasser was at that point advancing a platitude of conventional wisdom like, “Well, every vote counts.” » That’s not going to convince anyone to get off their butt – or take time off work or hire a babysitter – to bother voting.