Gary Johnson: 'A wasted vote is voting for somebody you don't believe in'
Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson and his running mate, Bill Weld, do not agree with the notion that casting a ballot for a third party candidate is a wasted vote.
During a second CNN Libertarian Town Hall on Wednesday, an audience member asked the men, both former Republican governors, their thoughts on the idea that a vote for their ticket wouldn't make a difference and could take away votes from the major-party candidates, resulting in a narrow win for either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. "A wasted vote is voting for somebody that you don't believe in, and if we're going to continue to vote for the lesser of two evils, that's still evil," Johnson said.
"As Gary likes to say, we have no problem with people casting a wasted vote, if we get into the debates we're going to get in the debates," Weld said. "If you wanted to waste your vote on Trump or Clinton, be our guest." He added that it's "pure speculation" that a vote for their ticket would take votes away from Trump. You can watch highlights from the CNN event below. Catherine Garcia
The Week
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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