Anyone who has not been living 50 feet underground for the past year knows what a mess this election is turning out to be. With many people seeing neither candidate as an acceptable choice, there is a question that must be asked: what are our options here? If a voter truly feels that they cannot cast a ballot for Trump or Clinton, what other choices are there?

Well for one thing you could simply not vote. This is an option that many Americans find themselves considering when they are faced with two candidates that they find undesirable. But the big problem with this cop-out is the idea of a civic duty. Looking back at the history of our country, it quickly becomes apparent that not voting is an incredibly unpatriotic and even downright disrespectful way to go. For all the people who have fought and died for our right to choose how the country is run, not voting should be unthinkable.

With that option out, the next choice would be to bite the bullet and choose the lesser of two evils. The issue with this, however, arises when it comes to the morality of the situation. If you truly and wholeheartedly disagree with both of your options and have chosen to vote for whomever you disagree with less, you need to take a step back. A vote should be cast for someone you believe will be a good leader and representative of our nation and your own voice and opinions. Choosing someone because you hate someone else more is as bad as not voting at all. You are casting a vote against your own views, and therefore a vote against yourself.

If you can’t not vote and you can’t feel right voting for one of the given options, the next obvious choice is a third party candidate. Here the options are Gary Johnson and Jill Stein. There are several complications with voting for a third party, especially when you can be confident that they will not win. On the one hand, you may have found a candidate that you at least partway agree with and that you could see ably running our nation. On the other, a vote for a third party candidate is just a vote being taken away from one of the two main candidates. For example, if you find yourself siding with Jill Stein on many important issues and you decide to cast your vote for her, you must also consider that this is essentially a vote taken away from Hillary Clinton. If you believe that Hillary Clinton would do a better job of leading the country than Donald J. Trump, then you have just voted against yourself in an entirely new way. However, if your top choice is Stein and Trump is your back-up, then perhaps a vote for Trump would be more logical, as it is more likely to earn him the presidency. However once moreover, if Trump is a far second to Stein, and only just preferred over Clinton, then congratulations. You have just found your candidate.

Voting in this election is perhaps the most complicated it has been in our lifetimes. These impossible-seeming decisions can make a voter feel as if they are trapped with no option out. Not wanting to waste a vote, while not wanting to not vote for Clinton or Trump, while also not wanting to not vote at all can leave your outlook very dim. Hopefully, this article has allowed you to consider new options and rethink the question, to vote or not to vote.