This election cycle has been distressing and exhausting. I am as tired as you are of the almost total absence of discussion about what can or would be done by the major-party presidential candidates to address the many vital issues we face. So you will be relieved to know that I am not trying to sell you on anyone. But please vote.

And as good as it would feel to express your disgust at the level of discourse by the major-party candidates, please do not waste your vote by giving it to someone who has no chance of winning. The “Eliot Cutler Effect” put the present occupant in the Blaine House … twice.

I hope, as many do, that ranked-choice voting will be in effect after November, but a vote for a third-party candidate for president this round could be disastrous.

We are lucky in Maine, if you are 18 or older, to be able to both register to vote and vote on Election Day. If getting to the polls Nov. 8 is difficult for any reason, it is easy to request an absentee ballot from your town office, take it home, fill it out and mail it back in, as long as you request the ballot by Nov. 3, and you get it back to the town office by 8 p.m. on Election Day.

As a registered voter who is not enrolled in a party, I urge you to vote for whoever you think would be the best choice between the two major-party presidential candidates. To loosely translate the old Italian saying, “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good” – and make your vote count.

Casey Ward

Newcastle

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