Does voting matter? Most of the people I have talked to in my generation don’t feel like their vote counts at all. They feel voicing their opinion for either of this year’s two major party candidates will not only waste their time but make them feel ashamed to be an American. Then when asked about voting third party, all they do is scoff at the idea.

To them, putting a vote down for a party that we all know can never win is a self-perpetuating cycle of disappointment and self-loathing. Voting third party, through their myopic lens view of the current political atmosphere, only perpetuates what major media reinforces; voting third party is a waste of opinion.

Third party leaders, organizers and people such as myself have to stand and disagree with the line of thought perpetuated by the media. The American morality of standing behind beliefs is the most important reality we must sustain. Third parties are the moving force of ideology in this nation, not the two major conglomerate parties. Whether you align more with Jill Stein’s Green Party, Gary Johnson’s Libertarian Party or even Zoltan Istvan’s Transhumanist Party, third parties stand to push more abstract ideas to the forefront of our political structure.

For instance, in the 19th century, the Free Soil party was founded on the sole basis of abolishing slavery. Their passion was founded with dismay by southern Democrats of the time, and their movement slowly enveloped the minds of American northerners. Their campaign was so successful that it helped the more popular third party of the time inherit the abolition movement and put their first politician in the oval office, Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln won in a four-way race against major party leaders whose ideologies were as old as America was at the time. It was a time of high tension and emotions running rampant across the young nation. The third parties of the time stood to push society forward into the more free-thinking ideologies we take for granted today.

Although today’s political atmosphere is boiled down into the binary options you are persistently shown on your miscellaneous devices, third parties stand to hold up every minutia of your beliefs. Even though the indoctrination of defeatist third party ideology stands today stronger than it has ever in American history, past the reason of standing up for yourself is one even more powerful in this election cycle.

The American presidential election system is one of the most unique ways of voting in a presidential candidate for any country. It’s confusing. It’s slow. And it is the ultimate checks and balances system any country has to offer. The only way for a candidate to win the election is to get a majority, 50 percent plus one vote, of the Electoral College’s total vote, which is 270 votes. If a third party, say Johnson, takes at least one state, it could derail the entire election.

In New Mexico, Johnson currently polls at 24 percent, which is only 11 points behind the front-runner Clinton. If he is able to take New Mexico’s five Electoral College votes, in conjunction with Clinton and Trump both taking equal amounts of states, Johnson could force a stalemate. If no candidate reaches the final 270 vote mark, the election goes to the House of Representatives to choose our next president.

Although the House is currently Republican controlled, the establishment’s distaste towards Trump is unheard of for a party nominee. The House also obviously hates Clinton due to both her party affiliation and their hatred of her every fiber. The House will be forced to choose between sticking to their party affiliation or running with their gut like the American people should have been doing this entire time.

Whether you vote third party or not, it’s important for you, as an American citizen, to fulfill your democratic duties and vote.