Voters need choices

Now that the presidential elections are creeping closer to an end, we have to wonder what will ever become of this great nation.

This year's campaign has been lack luster, tepid at best. The voting majority is decidedly split. Neither candidate has received a clear mandate from the electorate. Even the presidential debates last week were statistically a tie.

Why is this? Why can't a favorite be picked among the candidates? Because Americans really want a president they feel can lead one of the most powerful nations in the world. But both George W. Bush and Al Gore were picked as candidates because they could get people to give them money.

Sure both candidates have experience. Bush is the governor of Texas. Gore is vice president of the United States. But apparently, the American public can't decide who would be a better leader.

What does the public do when it can't decide whom to vote for? It just stays home, avoiding the polls all together.

What can we expect on November 7? We can expect to see even more pathetic voter turn out than in past elections. Why is it that people are going to stay home rather than voting, aside from the fact that they don't want vote for Bush or Gore?

The reason people don't vote is because they feel their voice doesn't count anyway. In case you have not noticed, there are three other presidential candidates.

Ralph Nader, Harry Browne, and John Hagelin are all running for the executive office in minority parties. Many people who can't get on the Bush and Gore band wagons would cast a vote for Nader, Hagelin or Browne, but many feel it wouldn't matter in the traditional two-party system of the United States. Votes for the underdog parties are wasted ballots for the presidency.

Maybe if Americans would cast more votes for the minority parties, democracy would be better served through balanced competition. Perhaps with a change in voting habits, politicians would realize the two-party system is a detriment to democracy, or the republic, this nation supposed to be based on. After all, what is the point of free elections and democracy if we can't vote for whom we want and have a chance of success? Is that even democratic at all?

The last day to register to vote is tomorrow, October 10. The best way to change this pathetic, lop-sided political arena is to register to vote on an independent ticket, such as the Reform Party, the Green Party or the Natural Law Party. The more people who register for those parties mean more recognition for those parties, thus empowering them with a larger voice.

The mainstream political powers that be are always complaining of fewer and fewer people voting, and they are right. The minority parties are one way to expand political choices and opportunities and get people interested in politics.