{"id":5503,"date":"2016-10-13T14:52:48","date_gmt":"2016-10-13T20:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=5503"},"modified":"2016-10-14T08:22:29","modified_gmt":"2016-10-14T14:22:29","slug":"what-about-evan-mcmullin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/10\/what-about-evan-mcmullin.html","title":{"rendered":"What about Evan McMullin?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Yeah, I know, it\u2019s nuts, but what do you think about his campaign<\/a>? \u00a0And would you consider voting for him? \u00a0(Fun fact: his website encourages everyone to write him in, \u00a0even in states where it was too late to register him as an \u201cofficial\u201d write in candidate, on the basis that, what the heck, if a miracle happens and he gets electoral votes from any state, he could press the case for the inclusion of those votes even from those \u201ctoo late\u201d states.)<\/p>\n

No, I don\u2019t really have anything to say about him. \u00a0But I\u2019m so tired of Trump and Clinton that his campaign is seeming less and less crazy.<\/p>\n

UPDATE:<\/p>\n

Funny, the above was motivated by an article that McMullin is polling at 20% in Utah, which puts him in striking distance of electoral votes in a four-way race. \u00a0Not this one in particular<\/a>, from Hot Air, but there were multiple with the same flavor. \u00a0And shortly after posting that, I saw links to a FiveThirtyEight piece<\/a> on the slim but not impossible odds of McMullin winning the presidency: \u00a0first, by taking Utah and being the third-place finisher in an outcome in which no candidate gets a majority of the electoral votes, and then garnering electoral votes in a compromise selection in the electoral college.<\/p>\n

So Go Utah! \u00a0We\u2019re counting on you. \u00a0But it\u2019s a tricky thing: \u00a0what should the strategy be of voters rooting for this outcome?<\/p>\n

Of course, Utahans should vote for McMullin.<\/p>\n

Blue-staters and Red-staters in states where Clinton or Trump, respectively are quite far ahead, can vote for McMullin just to retain some dignity in the voting booth. \u00a0After all, his campaign slogan, and justification for a last-minute campaign, is \u201cit\u2019s never too late to do the right thing,\u201d and his primary pitch to voters is simply, \u201cvote your conscience.\u201d<\/p>\n

But how does one, in a battleground state, ensure that, in whatever small way, one\u00a0contributes to furthering his chances?<\/p>\n

In a very real way, you can justifiably vote for him regardless of the close nature of the race. \u00a0Just say to yourself, \u201cmy vote belongs to neither the Republicans nor the Democrats. \u00a0If I vote for McMullin rather than abstaining, I am not \u2018helping\u2019 either candidate win by not voting\u00a0for the other one; I\u2019m just decreasing the total vote margin going to the top two.\u201d<\/p>\n

Are there some situations where it\u2019s better to vote strategically \u2014 to turn a state towards Trump because that\u2019s the only realistic way of preventing Clinton from getting 270 electoral votes? \u00a0In principle, maybe. \u00a0But on the other hand, there\u2019s a negative to that, too \u2014 given that Clinton\u2019s chances of reaching 270 are already quite high, it might be better, in the end, in whatever small way it matters, for more votes even from battleground states to be going to a \u201cneither of the above\u201d candidate, so that at least in the postmortem, the true measure of his support is known.<\/p>\n

Oh, and what about his policies?<\/p>\n

You know, it almost doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yeah, I know, it\u2019s nuts, but what do you think about his campaign? \u00a0And would you consider voting for him? \u00a0(Fun fact: his website encourages everyone to write him in, \u00a0even in states where it was too late to register him as an \u201cofficial\u201d write in candidate, on the basis that, what the heck, if […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[374],"tags":[442,480],"class_list":["post-5503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-election-2016","tag-evan-mcmullin"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat about Evan McMullin?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Yeah, I know, it's nuts, but what do you think about his campaign? \u00a0And would you consider voting for him? \u00a0(Fun fact: his website encourages everyone to\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/10\/what-about-evan-mcmullin.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What about Evan McMullin?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yeah, I know, it's nuts, but what do you think about his campaign? 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