The “throw away your vote” fallacy

If you vote for a third party or an independent candidate, some say, you are throwing away your vote.

So your vote has meaning only if you vote for someone who could win?  That makes no sense to me.

Why should our choices be limited to the nominees of the two major parties?  If we must vote for one of them, even if we don’t want either one, then our political liberty is severely restricted.  Voting for someone you don’t want violates the whole point of voting, which has to do with the consent of the governed and the people’s right to choose their own rulers.  If your vote is against your choosing, then you have indeed wasted your vote.

I suppose what people mean by “wasting their vote” if they cast their ballot for someone who is not a Democrat or a Republican is that they want to participate in the horse race of the election, wanting their vote to contribute to the final outcome of who comes out on top.

But elections are not games and voting is not a sporting event.

Vote for the candidate that you want to hold the office.  That’s the only way, in a Democratic Republic, for your vote to be meaningful.