Election season is a fascinating time, if you’re interested. If you’re not, it’s hard to escape. Political ads are everywhere, from yard signs on your neighbor’s lawn to tweets promoting candidates on your timeline. People do everything in their power to make their opinions heard when it comes to who will win in public office.

Organizations and interest groups are no different — some are even going so far as to shame people into voting by arguing that it’s a “civic duty” all good citizens must practice. However, the Constitution doesn’t ever mention voting as a duty of the citizenry, let alone imply that it’s an obligation.

Despite this, groups like the Voter Participation Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to increasing voter participation, have been using this idea of civic duty to target citizens who have not voted in the past, urging them to head to the polls in the midterm election. The fact that there are organizations dedicated to aggressively pursuing increased political engagement, even for those who choose not to engage, reveals our society’s unhealthy obsession with politics.