Letter: Holding your nose and voting

For the first time in the many years I’ve been voting in presidential elections, I believe I’ll be walking into the voting booth on Nov. 8 with no clear decision in mind. I also suspect I won’t be alone in this situation.

Neither of the two major party tickets provide me with the confidence that a vote for either would be appropriate. They haven’t “wowed” me with confidence that the major issues facing the next president would be tackled in a manner which would actually improve the country.

At the same time, I find that none of the “third party” tickets really deserve my vote, which would be given just to send a message rather than to actually elect a president.

Some people mention Libertarians Gary Johnson and Bill Weld as a positive alternative. In my opinion, if they were such great candidates, I would think they would have caught traction in one of the two primary parties.

And not voting is definitely not an acceptable course of action for me.

So, for the first time in my presidential-voting history, I’ll probably be “holding my nose” while making my last-minute selection.

I find this situation to be a huge tragedy for the voting public.

This story was originally published July 27, 2016 at 6:44 PM with the headline "Letter: Holding your nose and voting."