 The normative significance of formal rights can be appreciated by considering the right to vote in a free and fair election. There is no guaranteed or predetermined outcome in such an election, and, to that extent, the right to vote is formal: it is a right to be part of a process, not a right to any particular outcome of the process. But the franchise is not normatively “hollow”; rather, it is a right that has helped persons in a modern society to protect themselves from serious injustice (sec. 4 below).