by Erik Jay To a tremendous number of people, the polling booth is the very symbol of Americ an democracy.

Notwithstanding the inconvenient technicality that we actually live in a republi c, quite a different kind of political-institutional animal altogether, the act of voting has forever been extolled as among the greatest civic virtues. It s almost on a par with the public service of elective office. And, of course, if y ou don t vote you don t have any right to complain. At the same time, however, another myth was being added to the corpus of America n legends: the myth of the wasted vote. If you don t vote, you re no respecter of de mocracy; but if you do vote, your one ballot won t make any difference. Is there a nything to the myth of the wasted vote? Marking a ballot in a booth on a certain Tuesday is only one way Americans vote. It may not even be the most important way. Despite all the problems we do have America is populated, after all, by human beings we do enjoy about as much perso nal liberty as any other people on earth. And despite the Patriot Act, we still have autonomy over most of our personal, commercial and contractual relationship s. We exercise our discretion (we vote ) in matters both mundane and life-changing we sow, we water, we reap, we win some, we lose some. But we re making important deci sions and voting every day of our lives, and in every area of it. Is this weekend s teen-scream flick a hit? If it is, it s because six or eight milli on people voted with their wallets to make it so. Is the new Thai-Mexican-Italia n restaurant down the street a success? Well, if its food campaign is as hot and spicy as its fare, it ll get the votes and a mandate for dessert. So what about that wasted vote argument, the one that denies the efficacy of any s ingle vote. Well, the argument stands up as long as you re voting in a vacuum. But we don t exercise our franchise in the two minutes it takes to punch or mark a ba llot. We are part of a noisy, rollicksome, contentious process that results in a marked ballot. If, during that process, you convinced five others, who convinced five others, e tc. and down the line, that one vote didn t make a difference, why, then you ve made a difference of 25, or 100, or more, haven t you? It is only after an election that one can safely assert the worthlessness of the single vote. It is odd, though, that these two contradictory notions that you re a putz if you think your one vote can make a difference, but a worse one if you don t vote coexi st so cordially in our social mythology. Is voting the right that undergirds all the others? Is voting what makes one a good citizen? Frankly, voting is one of the less important rights we exercise. Every time there s an election in Iran, the Western press waxes positively ecstatic that the author ities allowed the polling places to stay open a few hours late. Less reported is the fact that the Iranian press corps is a virtual government department, or th at these people who are free to vote are not free to buy a copy of the Tel Aviv Time s or Newsweek on their way home from the polling place (or, better yet, on the w ay there). Productive people, particularly those employing dozens or scores or hundreds of people, are accomplishing much more outside the polling booth than inside. For t he unproductive, the polling booth is positively the best place to be, preferabl y as often as possible on as many issues as possible. Still, that is not where the power really is. It is in the millions of individua l votes cast every day, in supermarkets and cinemas, newsrooms and auto dealersh ips, among college students and senior citizens, at home and on the job. These a re the real votes that count in this vote-crazed country of ours, where some pun dits are beginning to lobby for online and mobile voting as a way to increase vo ter turnout. That, of course, is a terrible idea. But all the other online voting is nothing but good. Just this week I cast a number of ballots over the Internet for two bo oks, a pound of fabulous coffee beans and some computer stuff. In my opinion, the only thing that should be banned from online voting is politi cs.