Bad Voters

Jason Brennan, an ethics professor at Georgetown, has written a book called The Ethics of Voting, in which he contends that many citizens are "bad voters" and because of this they have a moral obligation to abstain from voting.

Brennan has restated his views on a Princeton University Press blog, saying among other things:

In The Ethics of Voting, I argue that most people have a moral duty to abstain from voting. See my previous posts, “Bad Government is Our Fault” and “Most People Shouldn’t Vote” for part of my explanation why. (Note that in “Bad Government is Our Fault”, I explain why I focus on bad voting even though bad voting is not the only thing that causes bad government.)
Here’s a problem: the people I describe as bad voters are unlikely recognize that they are bad voters.
To confirm this in at least one instance, as an unscientific experiment, I discussed my thesis with a person whom I believe exemplifies bad voting.  He agreed that other people should not vote.
More scientifically, psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger have shown that incompetent people systematically overestimate their own knowledge, competence, and mental acuity, while they systematicallyunderestimate others’ competence. The less incompetent people know, the less they know it. In contrast, more competent people tend to be more modest about their abilities. They know much, but they also know how much they don’t know. They overestimate how much others know. (This is called the Dunning-Kruger Effect.)
In chapter seven and in the afterword of The Ethics of Voting, I give an overview of some findings from political psychology, as well as other studies in voter rationality and knowledge. The upshot of those findings is, in my opinion, that any random person should assume she is politically incompetent until she has good reason to think otherwise. The issue is not “How do I know I’m a bad voter?”—you probably are.* 

While I have not read his book, one might reasonably conclude that the author has gone off track, mistaking voting for citizenship. There's nothing wrong with urging Americans to become more informed citizens. But it's quite another thing to claim that they are "bad voters" and should sit out the political process until they become well-informed, "educated" voters. Voting is a political act, and urging people to abstain from voting is a political act as well.

I'm not in a position to comment on Brennan's politics, but the argument he makes, as expressed in the blog text, smacks of elitist arrogance. He even makes an explicit comment in a footnote to the above that confirms his elitist orientation:

*However, people reading the Princeton University Press blog are much more likely to be good voters than randomly selected US citizens. I’m not saying that to suck up to readers, but because it’s true. The demographic factors that positively correlate with reading this post are also positively correlated with being a good voter, as I define the term.

Good citizenship is an admirable goal, but it's a futile exercise to try to analyze what happens in the privacy of the voting booth. We cannot control whimsical or stupid choices. And it is pointless to tell "bad voters" not to vote, because as Brennan says, bad voters do not know they are bad voters.

I suggest we leave the secret act of voting alone, and concentrate instead on educating people about the political process and the importance of making wise choices. As Brennan should know, sometimes even good voters elect bad candidates.