I voted today because I enjoy voting (and because I happen to have a fairly strong preference.) The tiny chance of being pivotal surely doesn’t compensate me for the time, but I enjoy seeing the vote totals and knowing that I influenced the final digit. I have a feeling that many people are like me, or equivalently, vote out of a sense of duty. This is a bit of a problem for the game-theory models of voting where rational people weigh the probability of being pivotal and intensity of preference against the “cost” (presumably time) of voting. These models tend to predict a tiny turnout. Now, I don’t doubt that more people vote in close elections, so the likelihood of being pivotal has *some* impact on turnout. Intensity of preference probably matters more, though. I know political scientists debate the determining factors in turnout ad infinitum; I’m not trying to break new ground here, just sharing some thoughts and perhaps starting a discussion.