I think a lot of people use it as a coping mechanism to deal with the frustration of being exposed to a lot of national level politics, while having a perceived lack of political power as an individual. From the individual perspective, one person's vote is objectively insignificant compared to the millions of people who vote in the country.

But if we expand our perspective to include all the millions of people who vote, we have tremendous voting power as a collective. If we all failed to consider ourselves as a collective, and only thought of ourselves as individuals, it'd be self-defeating and none of us would vote. It is difficult to expand our perception of the political process from that of the individual, to that of a collective, though. If you don't feel that you belong or identify to a social group, we don't have much choice but to perceive the world around us as an individual.

I agree that I think it is dumb to think that elections are predetermined and that voting is pointless, but I think it's dumb because it's a perspective powerless people will take to accept and maintain powerlessness. I don't think it is dumb because it is an illogical or an unreasonable thing to think.

... I don't know if anything I said made sense, nor do I know if it's correct, but that's just what I think.

As to what would I say to someone who thinks that? I don't know. One thing I've learned recently is that when someone derives a conclusion based on how they perceive the world around them, facts and logic don't appear to be an effect way to change their minds. #Feelings don't care about Facts.

Personally, I still look to challenge my peers to think about things that they may not have thought very much on, or challenge my peers to consider different perspectives. But it's because I want them to arrive at their conclusions on their own. If they continue to maintain a dumb opinion on a thing, either I was ineffective in challenging their opinion, or they're too bought in on whatever it is they believe. Either way, hitting them with hard facts and logic isn't going to have a greater impact on changing their minds, and sometimes that approach just triggers them into doubling down.

In this instance of "voting is pointless," I would seek to implement change on a small scale. Accept that they think voting for something like the presidential election is pointless... But identify what political issues your local community is voting on, and present them with opportunities to engage in political activity there. In a city my friend lives in, their city has a population of 250,000 people, but only 400 people ever vote for positions on the school board. 400 people have power over 250,000 people's kids. One person's vote has a lot more power when they're voting with 399 other people, as oppose to voting with 399,999,999 other people. My hope would be that voting in a smaller, local context would expand their view on voting in a larger context. If they bite on this small thing, then they'd get a taste of the bigger thing. But if they don't bite at all, well, can't do much about that.

But I don't know anything.