So many times over the course of this election season, I have heard people say “If you don’t vote for Clinton, it’s a vote for Trump,” “You have to vote for Trump, or Clinton will win,” or “I don’t agree with either of those candidate’s views, but I have to vote for (insert candidate here), or the other will win, and I can’t let that happen.” Every time I hear these excuses, I am struck with such profound frustration. No one has to vote for anyone.

The job of the voter is to find the candidate who most supports his/her views and to vote for that candidate. However, this seems to be a rarity in the modern political climate. In the last presidential election, while I was not old enough to vote, I often heard many people who could vote say things like “Well, I’m a Republican, so I have to vote for …” or “I don’t like that candidate, but they’re the Democratic nominee, so I have to vote for them.”

Voting like this is a huge problem in the United States because it increases the number of lazy voters who do not inform themselves and simply pick a political party based on a vague understanding of its platform, and then continuously support that party’s candidates.

However, I think an even bigger problem with the voting culture in the U.S. is the two-party system and the way people subscribe to it. I have heard and seen many people throughout this campaign season claim, “Well, I’m an independent, but I have to vote for Clinton, otherwise Trump will win,” and vice versa. It seems from my perusal of the internet that there are far more people who do not want to vote for Clinton or Trump than those who have their faith set in one of the two candidates.

If all of those people voted for a third party candidate who actually supported their opinions and unsubscribed to the two-party mantra, then there could very well be a President next year who is not Trump or Clinton. There are so many people who have criticized the two-party system yet still say, “Next election I’ll vote third party, the country cannot afford (insert candidate name) as President.” This belief is exactly the the reason that the two-party system still holds.

I fervently believe that you should vote for the candidate, regardless of what party he/she belongs to, that matches best with your belief system. Sometimes, the candidate for the party will have differing beliefs from the party platform, which is why it is important to understand the candidate’s beliefs, values and policies on his/her own terms, outside of the umbrella of the party system.

In fact, I believe it is the responsibility of everyone who chooses to vote to get to know all the ins and outs of the candidate’s platform, and then vote for the candidate that best matches their views.

So, stop saying that there are two choices for president. Find out who is on your state’s ballot and who is an eligible write-in, and find who is the best fit for your political beliefs. Here is a good website with a list of candidates. Please, it is up to each and every one of us to vote for the candidate we deem best suited for the job, and that candidate may not always belong to the two-party system. It is time that Americans started voting with their heads and also time for the two-party system to die.