Submitted by Rabbi Menachem Posner, a good friend and a member of Chabad.org's "Ask the Rabbi" team.

Super Tuesday came and went and I stayed home.

Since I turned eighteen I have always taken the opportunity to exercise my right and duty to participate in the electoral process.

Why did I bother? Didn't I know that in overwhelmingly Democratic New York my lone conservative vote would never have any affect come the general election? Florida, Michigan…maybe, but New York?

I guess that my religious zeal carried over to my political philosophy.

Maimonides writes that every individual should view the universe as perched on a delicately balanced scale. Every small deed counts. One extra mitzvah and you've tipped the scale in a positive direction and Moshiach comes. One less mitzvah and…

That's why I always marched over to the old, red five-story holdover from the days before public schools needed to be wheelchair accessible or fire-safe, and signed my name on the dotted line.

But this year I didn't. I could say that it was because none of the contestants were particularly appealing. But, heck, I voted in those local elections when I chose candidates based on the number of syllables in their names! So why didn't I vote today?

I finally realized that politics is not religion. G‑d is infinite, so He can make my tiny actions important. But politicians can't. If my vote doesn't count, it's a waste of time and I don't have enough of that as it is.

But a mitzvah, even a small one, is not a waste of time at all.

Maybe one of the reasons why Menachem didn't vote is because he's getting married in less than a month. Mazal Tov! – N.S.