Votes not wasted

I disagree with your statement that voting for a third party will help Trump or is a wasted vote.

I am no fan of Trump (or Clinton for that matter), but mathematically speaking, the only two types of wasted votes which have no effect on the final election are: Votes cast for candidates who did not win and excess votes cast for winning candidates.

If you vote for Clinton, but Trump wins, your vote was wasted. Also, if you voted for Clinton and she wins by more than 1 vote, your vote was also wasted, because she didn't need it to win.

Illinois has 20 electoral votes, and has gone Democrat for the last four elections in a row. The current polls put Clinton ahead of Trump at 47-42. Trump will not get Illinois' 20 electoral votes, it's just not going to happen.

The reason to vote for a third party, even though they have no chance of winning, is to demonstrate opposition to the two-party duopoly. Just like participating in a march against cancer, doesn't actually cure cancer, but it does make a statement that might induce other people to donate to cancer research.

Even if the third party people got as much as 15 percent of the popular vote, they could never get enough electoral votes to actually win. But if this happened, then perhaps the politicians, both democrats and republicans, would actually start to pay attention to us, the people.

That's why not voting, is not an option. If you don't vote, no one knows you didn't vote. There's no statement made.

An unprincipled vote, not voting for a third party, is the only wasted vote.

Steve Tilton

Libertyville