Voting in the 2016 presidential election feels like a reverse “Sophie’s Choice.”
If the major party candidates were your children, chances are you would prefer to give them both away. There wouldn’t be any objection. Instead, you’d probably say, “Here, take them. I never wanted them in the first place.”
While I understand that feeling, I must make one plea before the election ends tomorrow: Do not vote third party. You may not want either child, but they are the ones you have and they will forever be yours.
No third party candidate will win a single state, let alone the entire election. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson will not win, and Green Party candidate Jill Stein will not win. It may seem terrible and unfair that we have to choose between Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump, but America’s two-party system does not allow for other viable options.
It is a hard pill to swallow when you dislike the candidates, but voting third party is both ineffective and uninformed. Johnson and Stein are not major party candidates for good reasons. If they tried to run as such, they would never get anywhere.
Johnson proved this when he ran as a Republican in 2012. He made it to a debate, but never gained any traction during the primaries. He left the race and entered as a Libertarian, beginning the losing streak he will continue tomorrow.
Both third party candidates may seem capable on the surface, and they have likable qualities that the major party candidates lack, but Johnson and Stein both carry huge flaws.
Johnson is cool when it comes to some social issues, but he is weak when it comes to many other policies. He doesn’t seem to be able to list basic foreign policy facts, and he gets angry with reporters when they press him on the specifics.
He’s definitely no Trump, but that does not make him any more worthy of the presidency. The same goes for Jill Stein.
Stein has many cool ideas, and she aligns much more with Bernie Sanders than Clinton ever will. But she seems a little hippy-dippy with some stances that are questionable at best. Her speeches on vaccines fuel anti-vaccination rhetoric, and she promises to cancel student loan debt with no real solution to the problem.
However, even if Johnson or Stein were qualified, it would not matter. They will not win the election, and if you vote for either of them, you’re essentially giving a vote to the candidate whose views oppose yours the most.
 If you are liberal and vote for Stein, you take away from Clinton. If you are conservative and vote for Johnson, you take away from Trump. If your vote does not go toward the major party candidate you most align with, you only lessen your side’s chance of winning.
Sanders understood that fact, and he did not run third party after conceding to Clinton because he knew that choice would essentially hand the presidency to Trump. He knows he can’t take the chance of putting Trump in office because if that happens, his revolution will be even further away.
I understand the desire for a revolution, but sometimes it’s best to know you have to take one step backward to take two steps forward.
I voted for a major party candidate, and though I dislike the person I voted for, I know the candidate I chose has a shot at winning. A third party candidate will not win, so please don’t make a bet you’re sure to lose.
Lynne Bunch is an 18-year-old mass communication freshman from Terrytown, Louisiana.