Recently I've seen a lot of posts about how voting for third parties is like shouting into a garbage can, and that if you plan on voting for one you may as well not vote. Things like these bring me down, and frankly they're not true. Everyone should vote, no matter who they plan on casting their vote for. Voting is a right that not a lot of people have and as Americans we need to take action and vote for the candidates that we believe in. That's why I'm voting for a third party candidate.

As a millennial is the first election that I'm able to vote in, and I refuse to vote for someone who I don't believe in. I've never seen myself as a part of either political party. I support ideas and politicians from both sides of the spectrum. This election, however, I don't support either the republican or democratic candidates. I don't feel comfortable voting for Hillary; someone who has been under federal investigation, and has repeatedly lied about her actions and opinions. Normally this would cause me to vote for the other candidate, but I don't support Trump's racist remarks and I don't believe that he is fit to be president.

I don't feel comfortable voting for either of these candidates, therefore I'm not going to. As a proud American I feel as though a owe it to my country to vote, this may seem like a huge dilemma, but it's not. There's two great third party candidate on the ballot this year. Although I don't agree 100% with them either, I'm comfortable voting for them as I believe they are capable and worthy of running this country. Even though the odds of a third party candidate winning the election are slim to nothing, and it's true my vote might not change much, it's what I believe in. I'm not going to vote for someone who I think is unfit to be the president. You may say my vote is "trash" but as long as I stay true to my values that's all I care about. As a woman, and as a human I can't vote for Trump or Clinton. I don't expect you to agree with me but I expect you to respect my right to vote for whomever I believe to be the best candidate, even if they are a third party candidate.