Only 23% of the popular vote could theoretically determine the presidential election. That scares the @&*% out of me. We have a system shaped by the political realities, not of the 21st century, not of the 20th century, but of the 18th and 19th century. The electoral system was designed to placate slave owners’ interests. It is a system that desperately needs overhauling. But that, unfortunately, may never happen in my lifetime, given that we have a Congress that can barely function much less pass an amendment that would make all votes equally impactful in electing our highest executive. That is why this election will decide if we have a democracy for the next four years or very possibly NEVER. This is not a time to equivocate. One way to equivocate is to vote for a third party. In 2016 I discovered that people I greatly respected had voted for Jill Stein. Why? They said they didn't like Clinton and certainly didn’t like Trump. Given the peculiarities of our electoral college, voting for a third party is dumb, among other things. These third party votes have no impact. I vote for the lesser of two evils in a two party system. I don’t have to viscerally like the candidates. Here is my acid test: The person that has performed for decades as a public servant and has not performed as a dictator and has not acted like a dictator or even intimated that they want to be a dictator — even for a day — gets my vote. Isn’t this why America parted ways with Great Britain? Isn’t that why Americans wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution? Isn’t that why America is seen as a bastion of freedom? Isn’t that why people flock from all over the world seeking asylum in our country? They are fleeing from dictators. Duh!