Does my vote really count?

I didn't vote in India. Never felt that it made any difference whether I did or not.

According to me, a situation where a candidate loses an election by one vote will never occur. So I don't understand why my vote is so important. I also don't believe that the guys at the polling booth would cheat and cast a vote in my name, considering that I live in a decent constituency in Bombay, which is not very poor or uneducated, or known for such activities.

It may also have been that case that I didn't really like any of the candidates, or their party affiliations at a larger level, to make myself go through the trouble of getting dressed and going to the polling center and casting my vote as a sign of confidence in the system and the candidate's ability to run the system effectively.

What I want to talk about here is why I think my vote does not make a difference. Also why I think that all these campaigns sprouting up one after the other to encourage people to vote are well-intentioned, but they wouldn't bring about a change in the election results, or the type of candidates who contest.

Take a case where three candidates are contesting an election - Mr. Criminal, Mr. Filmstar and Ms. Women's-Quota. Let's assume that I don't vote and the three candidates get 1000, 800 and 200 votes respectively. Now, in the case that I had voted for Mr. Filmstar (if he was on a Congress ticket), then the tally would have been 1000, 801 and 200. Not much of a difference I think. Hence - my vote does NOT make a difference, and I did not need to go through so much trouble to find this out (yes it is too much trouble, and I don't necessarily like to make use of all my rights. You can now be ashamed of me).

The only case in which my vote would make a difference, is when someone else's decision to vote or not vote is tied to my decision. If someone says that they'll vote only if I vote, then I will definitely go out and vote, because now my vote DOES make a difference. Oh and by the way - I would make sure that we are voting for the same candidate, otherwise the two votes will cancel each other out and it will again be an exercise in futility.

The other point is about the campaigns. The average voting percentage in India is around 60%. Now, considering that the supporters of the various parties are evenly distributed across the country, statistics says that if 60% of the population votes, the results are going to be no different than those if 100% had voted. So, even though it's a noble cause, maybe we should use our resources more in trying to get better candidates to choose from, so that people will have a reason to leave their work and stand in line and vote.

Your points of view will be much appreciated.