Don’t throw away your vote

In this nation’s 240 year history, too many have risked their lives and even died for the right to vote. It is too sacred of right to simply waste upon a candidate you do not trust, do not agree with, or who you see has the lesser of two evils, because that would still entail voting for evil. We, as Americans, have a long history of resisting the status quo, and resisting what is forced upon us. Is that not why we are the United States of America, and not the Republic of South Canada? Why is it that we cannot get past voting for candidates that were forced upon us?

If enough citizens vote third party, it will rattle the two party system. It is clear that our politics will undergo a fundamental change following this election, the two party system should not be exempt from that change. It seems as this circus of an election season continues, more and more of us who plan to vote third party are being told we are throwing away our vote.

{mosads}The arguments are shallow and easily recognized. “The two-party system always wins, there’s no use”; “vote for the lesser of the two evils”; “It’s nice you want to vote on principle, but one of the two party candidates will win no matter what”; “If you vote third party, you’re helping  get Clinton (or Trump) into office, you don’t want Clinton (or Trump)  for president do you?”

The two party system will continue to wreak havoc on our democracy if citizens continue to fall into the trap of voting for the lesser of the two evils, simply because those evils were thrust upon us from a system that has been present since Washington’s administration, rather than voting their conscious, including voting third party.

No matter how a citizen votes, the fact that they are exercising their right to vote is a powerful thing. argument that voting third party means that you are throwing away your vote is inherently flawed. Unless you take your ballot and throw it in the trash after voting for a third party candidate, you have not thrown away your vote. It is still counted with the others. Voting third party is not only a vote for the candidate you have chosen on conscious, it is a vote against the other candidates that the two party system has chosen for us, it is a vote against the two-party system, and the over-zealous partisanship that has plagued our politics over recent years. Voting third party is a vote for a more participatory democracy with a wider range of ideas furthering our nation’s progress. Vote your conscious, and don’t throw away your vote.

Sonia Elossais is a Political Science and Economics major from Iowa studying at Coe College, she is not registered with any party.