Why vote?

A month ago I participated in the electoral process in the largest democratic nation in the world. I was reading somewhere that many intellectuals consider voting in election as a futile exercise. Because to ask a simple question, how much impact does your single vote has in determining the outcome of an election?  In all the major elections that I can recall, there were not a single one that ended up in tie or winning margin was less than a hundred votes. So why vote? 

I am a strong proponent of democracy. I cannot imagine living without freedom for thought, action and expression of opinion. Election (unfortunately) is the only process that allows you to exercise your power to entrust people to protect that freedom entitled to you by the constitution. Therefore, it is the duty of the citizen to exercise that power. A dark joke is that you are voting to choose who should loot you. But in a way that is a power by itself, how much ever ironic it may sound. 

Above I wrote ‘unfortunately’, because, at least in Indian democracy it is very difficult to recall your representative, if you think he is doing a bad job, for 5 years once he is elected. Electorate has no control over there representative till the next election. I believe that there should be a system that make sure that a representative truly express the view of the majority in his electorate, and if not, there should be way to pass a motion of no-confidence to fire him/her from the position. With the modern technology and internet I believe that will not be major technical hassle to achieve.

P.S: The candidate I vote for did not win. But I feel very happy to take part in a process that determine the course of a nation for the next five years and overall it resulted in a change that I anticipated, for good or bad.