How can voting reinforce limited government and the rule of law?

Answer 1

Voting can limit government, if you vote only for candidates who you believe truly will work to limit it.

The problem comes when people vote unconditionally, supporting a "lesser evil" who they know will nonetheless expand government (and/or violate the rule of law), if there is no candidate who is actually going to limit government.

Unconditional voting leads to ever-expanding government, as both parties control the nominees and learn to only offer expanded-government candidates. It rewards this behavior.

Responsible Voter Abstinence, on the other hand, is when you only vote for good candidates, abstaining in races where the choices are between "lesser evils". To be responsible about this, one must not simply not stay home, which politicians can pretend is apathy. Instead, one must go to the booth and vote in the good races. Ideally, you should also make your conscious abstinence known, in the races where both candidates are bad.

The two ruling parties both pay close attention to voters who abstain because their candidates are bad. They refer to this as "failing to turn out the base", or "not getting voters excited". This makes active, responsible voter abstinence a powerful third way of voting.