On September 19, President Obama gave a passionate speech addressing people who believe their vote does not matter. He said:

“If I hear anybody saying their vote does not matter. That it doesn’t matter who we elect. Read up on your history. It matters. We’ve got to get people to vote… Realize everything we stand for is at stake, all the progress we’ve made is at stake in this election. My name may not be on the ballot, but our progress is on the ballot. Tolerance is on the ballot. Democracy is on the ballot. Justice is on the ballot. Good schools are on the ballot. Ending Mass incarceration, that’s on the ballot right now… There’s no such thing as a vote that doesn’t matter. It all matters. And after we have achieved historic turnout in 2008 and 2012, especially in the African American community. I will consider it a personal insult, an insult to my legacy if this community lets down its guard and fails to activate itself in this election. You want to give me a good send off? Go vote!”

Much of what President Obama said is true. Some of it is debatable for reasons I won’t get into in this article but when he said, “There’s no such thing as a vote that doesn’t matter,” he couldn’t be more wrong. People wonder “how could we have elected George Bush twice?” Well, we didn’t. The Al Gore/ George Bush Election in 2000 and the John Kerry/ George Bush election in 2004 is evidence that everyone’s vote does not matter. For those who don’t know, Al Gore and John Kerry won the popular vote but still lost the general election. How is that possible you may ask? It’s simple but very complicated.

In America, we do not directly elect the president. America has a winner take all electoral college system during the General Election. The electoral college has 538 electors. The electors consist of 435 members of the House of Representatives, 100 members of the Senate, and 3 electors from the Districts of Columbia. There are 50 states in America. Each state has a number of electors based on population. The bigger the state’s population, the more electors that state has, the smaller the states population, the fewer electors that state has. Every 10 years the number of electors in a state may fluctuate based off of census data. The candidate that wins a particular state gets all of that state's electors while the candidate that loses gets none. A candidate becomes president when they receive 270 Electoral Votes which is a little more than half of the total electors.

In the general election, since 1992 there are states that have always voted democrat overwhelmingly and states that always vote republican overwhelming. These states are known as “safe states.” Candidates don’t spend much time or money campaigning in these states because they know they will win these states. For democrats, there are 18 safe states including the District of Columbia. For Republicans, there are 11 safe states. Those states add to make 39 states. If you live in those states, your vote does not matter. If you are a republican living in New York, you vote does not matter. It will not affect the election in any way. If you are a democrat living in Texas (a safe republican state), your vote does not matter and will not affect the election. If you are a republican living in New York (a safe democratic state) If you live in any of those 39 states, your vote for either main political party, your vote does not matter. Your vote will not affect the outcome of the election in any way. You can click here to see if you state is a safe democratic or republican state.

There are 50 states in America and I’ve only mentioned the 39 safe states. The remaining 11 are called “swing states.” Swing states are states that sometimes vote republican and sometimes vote democrat. These states are also known as battleground states because the candidates of the two major political parties must battle and spend time and money campaigning to win those states. Only those that live in a battleground state vote actually matters. These 11 swing states are Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

If you live in a swing state, your vote will determine who wins the election. Your vote for Trump or Hillary out of fear of the other is legitimate.However, if you live in a safe state, your vote has no bearing on who wins the election. It sad but it’s true. Yes, sorry to break it to you but your vote does not count. However, you can make you vote matter if you live in a safe state by voting for a third party candidate like Jill Stein of the Green Party or Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party. A third party candidate has no chance of winning the election but it makes sense to vote third party especially if you live in a safe state.

Right now, we have the two most disliked candidates in American history. Both have historically high unfavorable ratings. Trump’s unfavorable ratings were as high as 63 percent, while Clinton’s unfavorable ratings had been as high as 59 percent. It is clear that neither candidate represents the values of the majority of American people. We should be looking at other candidates like Jill Stein and Gary Johnson who may represent us more not because they can win, but because if they reach 5 percent of the vote this coming election, their party will receive federal funding moving forward so they can be a legitimate threat to the democratic and republican parties which will allow them to have the funds to have candidates run in local elections. If you do not live in a swing state, you don’t have to worry about being forced into voting for Trump because Hillary is horrible or voting for Hillary because Trump is horrible. Feel free to vote your conscience if you live in a safe state.

If you do not like Hillary or Trump, vote third party. We need other parties in America to hold the corrupt democratic and republican parties in check. If we don’t get third party candidates to at least 5 percent, we will never be able to hold these corrupt parties in check. Right now in America, we have two major right winged parties screwing us over. There is no opposition party that actually fights for the people. It seems crazy but it’s true.

It was the democrats who got NAFTA through congress. The republicans tried to when George HW. Bush was in office but the democrats blocked it from passing through congress. Bill Clinton supported NAFTA which split the democratic opposition allowing NAFTA to pass.

It was a Democrat (Bill Clinton AGAIN) who passed the Telecommunications Act which deregulated the media. Bill Clinton is the reason Main Stream Media sucks today. Before the passage of the Telecommunications Act, there were 50 media sources competing against each other to deliver high quality news. Today, six people own the entire TV News industry. The lack of competition allows the media to serve their corporate owners and special interests rather than doing objective news and reporting. Today, trust in media is at an all-time low. Trust in media was at an all-time high during the Vietnam War when Journalist and Newscasters were allowed to do their job. Thank you, Bill Clinton, for not allowing reporters to do their job. Thank you for Fox News. It’s your fault half of the country is incredibly stupid and that Donald Trump exists. George HW. Bush couldn’t deregulate the media, so Bill Clinton did it. Again, thank you.

It was a Democrat who deregulated Wall Street which eventually leads to the 2008 Great Recession and subprime mortgage crisis. The republicans tried to do it but couldn’t get it through congress because the democrats opposed them. It took a Democratic president to split the natural opposition which leads to right winged bills passing.

We have two right winged corporatist parties in America and neither fight for the people. Leaked audio revealed Hillary Clinton saying “I am occupying the center-left and center-right”. Everyone who lied in the comments in my last article “Why Millennials Hate Hillary Clinton” saying Hillary Clinton is a liberal and a progressive, her own words disprove that. You can no longer tell that lie. Hillary is not a liberal or progressive and will not fight for liberal or progressive values. She is a center-right, neoliberal, neocon who no one likes. Donald Trump is an idiot, right winged, fascist, buffoon.

Most Americans would tell you different but the majority of Americans are liberal and progressive. They would never claim to be liberal or progressive because Democrats have polluted and demonized the words “liberal” and “progressive” with their neoliberal, centrist policies that screw over everyone who is not rich. It seems hard to believe that majority of the country is liberal, but public policy polling backs me up. See the chart below.

We need change in this country. Hillary Clinton seemingly represents no change at best while Donald Trump represents change for the worse. We messed up. We screw up big time with these two clowns. The least we can do is make things better for the future. So PLEASE if you are in a safe state, please vote third party. If you are in favor of the policy positions above, Jill Stein is your ideal candidate. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. If we don’t at least get third party candidates five percent of the vote in the general election, we will continue to have the same results.

On a side note: The upcoming presidential election is much more than just an election. It is a fight for our democracy. Whether you are a Clinton supporter, Trump supporter, Stein supporter or a Johnson supporter, it is important that you have the right to vote. Please Join Unity for democracy on October 23rd, 2016 in Washington DC to March take back your democracy and prevent America from becoming the corporatocracy that it is well on its way to becoming. This is a nonpartisan event that is committed to making sure that your voice and your vote will always matter. To learn more information, you click here to visit the Facebook page. If you can't make it but you would like to help fund the event, you can donate by clicking here. The march is in less than three weeks. So far $1,243 has been raised. $5,000 is needed to completely fund the event. Any donations will help. You matter. Make sure your voice and your vote makes a difference. Please share this event with your friends.