I was planning on writing my own defense of voting post as well[*]. My favorite example is how the current Governor of (my brief home) state of Washington got elected. She won by ~100 votes at the time; that's fewer votes than a single election day shuttle volunteer swings.

Literally 1 dude volunteering/being hired for that day would have won the other side the governor seat. Yet I have a friend who still lives in Washington and makes fun of me for voting and volunteering.

[*] I'm not sure if I will now, given two excellent posts regarding voting recently. Mine is far more fluffy and involves less math so I'm thinking I may just scrap it.