A few more bits on voting

Marginal Revolution's Alex Tabarrok voted for the first time ever and got a free coffee from Starbucks for his troubles. If I were a US citizen, I would have voted in these elections, and not just for the free coffee. His blogging partner in crime, Tyler Cowan, comments on voting with:

'Most of what you do is for expressive value anyway, so you shouldn't feel guilty about voting, if indeed you vote. The people who think they are being instrumentally rational by not voting are probably deceiving themselves more. They are actually engaged in an even less transparent form of expressive behavior (protest against the voting system) and yet cloaking that behavior under the guise of instrumental rationality. The best arguments against voting are simply if you either don't like voting or if you don't know which candidate is better.'

I disagree in general with Cowen's comment that '...both voting and not voting are motivated by the thought that you are better than other people'. The statement does suggest that Cowen at the very least, is having these thoughts of supremacy ... although in his case they are probably be justified.