If you want good things to happen in your community you'd better get out and do them yourself. Voting doesn't improve a situation. Hard work does. By voting you allow a politician to do whatever he wants to do. Then he says he did it because you told him to.
Politicians do whatever they want to do.
Incumbents have enormous campaign funds, financed by special interests. Since most candidates and propositions win by thousands of votes, scholars speculate that people realize their vote won't make a difference. Maybe they vote for the entertainment value. April - Elections are about money. Politicians compete in order to spend it.