My top 3 criteria for picking who I vote for this year will be:

1) Is not Biden
2) Is not Trump
3) Of whoever is left, the most honest, compassionate, and least racist/sexist choice.

@LouisIngenthron

I would say the same about voting for a major party. In not a single election would your vote have changed the outcome, ever. So why do it?

Moreover, if we just look at the significance of your vote, you are a larger percentage of the vote when voting for a third party than when voting for a primary party. Something on the order of 50x **more** impactful when voting for a third party than a primary party in percentage of the vote you account for.

Moreover while not winning or winning for a primary has little effect from your vote, with a third party even loosing has a positive outcome. By swinging the % higher (which you do wtih 50x more effect) you are sending a message even when you loose by raising the % enabling third-party more likely access, exposure, and chance to win in the future.

@freemo @LouisIngenthron close races don't always happen but they're not that uncommon either. Cook County IL is still waiting to find out the winner of the State's Attorney primary that's basically going to decide the next office holder. There are regularly significant races won by a single vote both in primaries and in general elections, and in many places 'safe' districts mean that the primary is what decides things.

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@fencepost

Name a single **presidential** race where a single vote from anyone ever in the USA has made a difference in the outcome? That has literally never happened and statistically if the USA lasted for ever that would never happen, the universe would probably die of heat death first.

@LouisIngenthron

@freemo @LouisIngenthron presidential races aren't all that matters, and you'd need a race that was close enough electorally that a single state flipping would flip the electoral college AND where any of the states with enough electoral votes were very close.

I can give you one example you should be well aware of with a *very* slim margin (that ended up not mattering because of other highly questionable decisions). Want to take a guess first?

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