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Reader question: In this sentence - West voted with his feet by leaving Harvard and returning to Princeton – what does voted with his feet really mean? My comments: First, let’s make sure of what “voted with his feet” doesn’t mean. To “vote with one’s feet” doesn’t mean that you actually write your name and the choice of your candidate on the ballot sheet using your feet instead of hands. No, that is not the case with this idiom. As it is with idioms in general, you can’t take a phrase like this at face value. “Vote with one’s feet” is a metaphor. It means one chooses to cast their metaphorical vote of approval or disapproval of a situation by moving their feet, i.e. doing something. In other words, they let their action do the talking. In the above example, West, by leaving Harvard and returning to Princeton, shows that he really prefers Princeton to the other school after all. That’s what “voted with his feet” really means – that is, to show his preference by some concrete action. For instance, in the divided states of America, some states allow gay marriage. Many others don’t. Say, you’re gay and your state doesn’t allow you to marry a member of your own sex, you move to, say, San Francisco. Then you have voted with your feet by moving to California, meaning marriage-wise, you prefer California to whence you come. | 
