Elections are essential now more than ever. They decide who is chosen to run different aspects of our local, state, and the federal government. We have our main two political parties, the Democrat and Republican Party. Political parties also consist of several third-parties as well who are practically never elected into anything.

I am registered as a Democratic voter. In certain elections, you have to have chosen to be either a Democrat or Republican. I think that is bullshit because then in those cases; I get locked in automatically to vote for everyone in that party in the voting booth regardless of how I feel about them. I have found myself leaning less toward being a Democrat, but I do not necessarily identify as a Republican either.

When my state had its last election for governor, I looked at each candidate one by one regardless of party. I compared their views on certain stances, such as minimum wage. I wrote them all down and color-coded them based on how their opinions compared to mine and how important they were.

In the end, the person who I voted for (who was Republican) ended up not winning, although I question whether my vote was even registered. I did a walk-in written ballot because I lost my mail-in one.

The world has changed significantly since our country was founded, while not everything else has changed. Our Constitution remains unchanged, so why should the two major political parties remain unchanged or disbanded as well? We could make certain third-parties, like Independents, more prominent.

I have the option to change my political affiliation as being affiliated with neither major party. When it comes down to significant elections such as presidential primaries, I am going to have to pick a party again, so what is the point? This whole party nonsense almost makes me want to not participate in elections where political affiliations matter and disallow me to select the candidates that I want to choose.

Let's shake up our government and it's political party nonsense.