Since I was little, I had dreamed of voting in my first presidential election. I registered to vote when I was seventeen (you can register to vote if you are younger than eighteen but will be eighteen by the next election) ,and I was able to vote in smaller elections, but I was most excited to vote in a big presidential election; both in the primary and general elections. I was hoping I would have some good candidates to choose from, but this election is offering up two candidates that I am definitely not a fan of.

I have always been very “in-the-middle” with my political views. I would never register as an Independent in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania because I would be unable to vote in the primaries, so I chose a party that I am now changing. In this election season, you hardly hear that people are voting for a candidate. Most people are voting against a candidate, which is not how voting should be done. Then I hear that some people are not voting at all because they don’t want to pick between Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, or Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, but people often forget that there are other candidates to choose from.

They are the Third-Party candidates.

I could not imagine myself throwing away a vote by not voting in my first presidential election because it is something I have been looking forward to since I was young. I cannot see myself voting for Trump or Clinton and I am not the type of person who thinks I should vote against a candidate (the lesser of two evils).

I am voting for Gary Johnson.

Now, there are plenty of other Third-Party candidates to choose from, but Gary Johnson will be the only Third-Party candidate on all fifty states’ ballots.

I definitely recommend taking a quiz on isidewith.com to see which candidate you stand with the most on issues. That way, you can see all of the options you have to vote for in the upcoming election.

Gary Johnson is the Libertarian candidate. When my boyfriend introduced me to the idea of being a “Libertarian”, I did a lot of research on the party. Libertarians do a good job of incorporating both social and conservative viewpoints in their platform. I watched a video of Gary Johnson and he described himself as “socially liberal and fiscally conservative” which fits my viewpoints the most.

It is not that they are necessarily socially “liberal.” It is that they feel like the government shouldn’t get involved with personal decisions. Well, at least that is how I view it. For example, if a woman wants to get an abortion, it should be her decision because it is her body. It should not be up to the government to decide if she should be able to get an abortion or if she should not be able to get an abortion. Social views are based off of personal decision.

They also want a small government, which fits more with Republican ideologies. A small federal government means that the states are able to have more power. In my case, I think of each state as a small country. Yes, the federal government should be involved at some point to make the states more cohesive, but I do not think the federal government needs as strong of a presence as it wants and has. There are some things, like education, that I think should be left up to the state government.

These are my opinions but I am also showing you that there are other options out there for a presidential candidate. Gary Johnson is almost polling at 15% which means that he will get to be in debates with Clinton and Trump. This would be amazing for the country so that citizens can see that there is another option for president and that you don’t just need to vote against a candidate.

Do some research and go to isidewith.com. Yes, the United States is a typically a two-party country, but it is time to change that.