Who's really throwing their vote away

I'm in the camp that believes that voting in the presidential race is irrational. The odds that your vote will change the outcome is too slight to justify the time you spend voting. However, smaller elections, like a vote for town council, give voters much better odds of making a difference.

But tell that to the voting population, they tend to avoid town council elections. Nearly 40 percent of them also avoid presidential elections too, of course.

I want to vote libertarian and unfortunately the closest thing we have to a libertarian candidate is Ron Paul, which is like wanting a sandwich and ordering a quesadilla. Paul's integrity is questionable and the only way he will ever get a chance at winning the election is if Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are caught having an affair with each other. I know voting for Paul in the primary won't be enough to get him the Republican nomination.

And without a nomination from one of the two parties, he won't have a chance at winning. Yet, I still might vote for him.

Think about it, if one is afraid of voting for a third-party candidate because that will be "throwing their vote away," they have to believe their vote is worth something in the first place. I don't think my vote is going to change the results, so there's nothing to actually throw away.

But when you vote for a doomed option like Ron Paul, a Libertarian party candidate or the Green party, you could help make a statistical boost to their results. They'll still lose, but you can help them command more influence with the established parties.

If your vote doesn't count, you might as well cast it honestly.