Because it does, at least according to a study from the University of Wisconsin. Research has long shown that good health leads to higher participation rates in elections, but this new study takes on the reverse question of whether the act of voting leads to good health. To get at that issue, the investigators looked at behavioral data from more than 8,000 Wisconsin residents who had graduated from high school in 1957. Each person’s health and longevity were tracked against actual voting records for the following 60 years.

Even holding constant for demographics, wealth, education, and social behaviors, the researchers found that voting in general (and the 2008 Presidential election specifically) was associated with a 45% lower mortality risk 5 years later, a 37% lower risk 10 years later, and a 29% lower risk 15 years late. Older adults who voted, regardless of their wealth or political affiliation, experienced a significantly reduced mortality risk, and among that group, those in poor health benefited the most. 

Why could voting have such a large impact on survivorship? The study doesn’t go into mechanisms but the research team still offered up that the health benefits of voting could come from a stronger sense of belonging and connection and the positive biological responses we have to doing positive, pro-social acts.

We are at the same time a little skeptical of the idea that something that happens once every two or so years can have such a profound impact on mortality and agreeable to the idea that voting is both a social good and a private one as well. So let’s make sure we all vote in 2028. Just don’t screw it up.