Participation vs Abstention

Voting is mandatory in  Brazil but  it is not compulsory in the U.S.A at all  ! Municipal elections have just happened  in Brazil  and Presidential Election will happen in the U.SA on November 8th, 2016  . Have you been paying attention to the latest news about Brazilian  and American politics ? Do you believe it is essential to participate in this kind of  decision-making process or you consider voting a waste of time ?

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/upshot/presidential-polls-forecast.html

Believe it or not ,in Rio de Janeiro 25% of registered voters did not show up to cast their ballots. If we consider the 5% of blank and 13 % of invalid votes,it means that 43% of Rio's voters chose not to vote for mayor .In São Paulo the rate was almost 40% !

Why have so many voters ducked out of voting ? Do you know any other verbs in English which mean the same as avoid ? Check the links below to look up synonyms in the dictionary for some of  the words used in the paragraphs above ,ok ?

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/ballot_1

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/thesaurus-category/british/to-avoid-doing-something-or-to-avoid-something

 How about these quotes below ? You can choose the one you like best to say a few words about it at the bottom of this post,can't you ?

 http://plus55.com/politics/2016/10/brazil-2016-municipal-election-results

  http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/22-countries-voting-mandatory/