The current presidential race is probably one of the more dramatic that I’ve seen in my 23 years of life. While I’ve only been able to pay attention to so many, this one is full of accusations of racism, birds, FBI investigations, “pyramid schemes”, and Zodiac killers. With the current candidates as indicated by the primaries, both parties look to set a new record it would seem. Donald Trump would be the first president with neither political nor military experience of any kind, and Hillary Clinton would be the first female president elected.

While both of these would certainly create a bit of a buzz, is either candidate really palatable. As a moral and ethical conservative, I can’t exactly vote for Hillary due to her stances on abortion. As a social and economic liberal, Donald Trump doesn’t win my vote due to his stances on immigration, tax laws, and social welfare.

So, that leaves third party candidates right? Wrong. Third party candidates can come from a whole slew of parties, whether it is the Green Party, the Socialist Party, or the Libertarian Party. As a whole, the number of individuals voting for neither of the two major parties may be enough to disrupt the system; they are divided into smaller, statistically insignificant parties. Voting for any of those candidates would effectively be a non-vote.

This leads to the final option, not voting at all. This is the option I will be adopting this election cycle. While voting is very important civic duty for citizens to uphold, I don’t think that any individual should be expected to vote for something (or someone) that they do not support in its entirety. Because I cannot support either candidate, I will be supporting NEITHER candidate.

So am I ruining the system for everyone else by not voting? Absolutely not. The reason is that my vote doesn’t count. That’s right. It doesn’t matter. Regardless of what the public would want you to believe, the vote of a single individual doesn’t matter at all.

Here’s why. The Electoral College is the system we have designated as our means of presidential election. We vote for people to vote for us. Whichever party wins the most votes in each state, receives ALL of the electoral votes for its candidate. Additionally, even if your particular choice candidate wins all the electoral votes, many states don’t even require the electors to vote how their constituents voted. While a state may vote for Trump, the Electoral College delegates can choose to vote for whomever they please.

Mathematics also proves that my vote has no effect. According to Game Theory principles, the odds of a single vote having any significance are 1 in 60 million. That’s pretty low odds. See, I’m not hurting any of the kind people who would like to support their candidate by not voting. But, I refuse for my vote to go towards the shiniest of two turds.