OT - Gas to hit 4.00 - Vote for Ron Paul - dropping out?

[Shane Hathaway]

Nicholas Leippe wrote:
> The last thing I want to do is give other people the idea that someone I don't 
> like has more support than is real. Voting for someone I don't like, simply 
> because he's one of two people that will actually win, is lying. Yes, I'm 
> free to do it, but why would I want my fellow countrymen  to think this guy 
> has an additional vote when I'd rather an entirely different person in 
> office?

I have personally never been able to tell the truth through a ballot.  I 
never support any particular candidate to the exclusion of all other 
candidates; I favor several candidates while being opposed to several 
others.  Thus the best I can do with a single-choice ballot is express a 
gross approximation of my truthful opinion.  A partial truth is a lie. 
The single-choice ballot forces me to lie!

That's not hyperbole.  I am often disinclined to vote because I know 
intuitively that the single-choice ballot prevents me from expressing my 
true opinion.  The write-in option doesn't change that.

> Your vote does count, even when not going to one of the only two possible 
> winners in the current election. It goes to the score card that everyone 
> sees--and that goes to either solidify or change opinions down the road--the 
> seeds of change.

Voting for a non-viable candidate is a vote for voting reform.  It would 
be wonderful to have an election where the majority of voters choose a 
write-in candidate.  Even if none of the write-in candidates win, the 
voters would be sending the message that our current ballots are not 
expressive enough.

Shane