Don’t Throw Votes Away

With 2 unusually controversial candidates and 2 nearly invisible ones, this year’s election will surely be memorable. Only a month of campaigning is left and early voting has already started. If you haven’t already, you’d better choose the lesser of 2 evils: Hillary Clinton.

Clinton and Trump, heading our two major political parties, are the only candidates that have a reasonable chance of winning. Even though you could cast a vote for one of the “other” party candidates or write-in an unlisted candidate, such a vote may end up doing more harm than good. For instance many people can’t stand the thought of a Donald Trump presidency, but don’t want to vote Clinton either. Voting for a third-party could be your form of protest.

Unfortunately, protest votes for third party candidates are not productive.

No third-party candidate has ever won an election, and write-ins only accounted for 0.11% of the vote in 2012, according to the Federal Election Committee. By not voting for the only candidate that could realistically beat Trump, no matter how you feel about her, (I’m talking to you, Bernie-or-Bust people), you are helping Trump reach what should be an impossible victory.

It still seems like California isn’t getting the message. According to My Time To Vote, California has the highest number of alternative presidential candidates, with twelve declared.

Google searches for “write-ins” increased by over 2800% just this last week, according to CNN.  This is a troubling development.

Millennials –the second-largest voting block in the country– is currently likely to vote for a third party candidate. 44% are divided between the Green Party’s Jill Stein and Independent Gary Johnson, according to an NBC News poll.

Being dissatisfied with both Clinton and Trump is not a good enough reason to vote for any of these other options. When asked about the situation in Aleppo, Gary Johnson replied, “What’s Aleppo?”

I can’t consider a person for president that isn’t even aware of one of the greatest humanitarian crisis we have faced in years.

Jill Stein isn’t any better.

Stein has suggested that child vaccinations cause autism.

The fact is, none of these alternate candidates have a realistic chance of winning the election.  A vote for any of them is likely an advantage for Trump.

As someone who isn’t yet of voting age and feels rather helpless watching this election inch ever closer to catastrophe, take it from me: Don’t throw your vote away.

If nothing else, Clinton knows what Aleppo is.