My main response is that this is worrying about very little—it doesn’t take much time to choose who to vote for once or twice every few years.
But in particular,
2) The risk you incur in going to the place where you vote (a non-trivial likelihood of dying due to unusual traffic that day).
is an overstated concern at least for the US (relative risk around 1.2 of dying on the road on election day compared to non-election days) and Australia (relative risk around 1.03 +/- error analysis I haven’t done).
Yes, you’re right that election day doesn’t add much to the danger. But the baseline risk of drying on the road is pretty high relative to other risks you probably face, so if you thought the benefits of voting were negligible this one might be a significant element of your calculus.
My main response is that this is worrying about very little—it doesn’t take much time to choose who to vote for once or twice every few years.
But in particular,
is an overstated concern at least for the US (relative risk around 1.2 of dying on the road on election day compared to non-election days) and Australia (relative risk around 1.03 +/- error analysis I haven’t done).
Yes, you’re right that election day doesn’t add much to the danger. But the baseline risk of drying on the road is pretty high relative to other risks you probably face, so if you thought the benefits of voting were negligible this one might be a significant element of your calculus.