Who Do These Votes Belong To, Anyway?

By Chip Taylor

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On the campaign trail…

A few days ago my campaign treasurer ran into a candidate from one of the other parties. A candidate running for the same state representative seat as me, with whom my treasurer happens to be acquainted. "What the hell is he running for?" the other candidate said, referring to me. "He can't win and he's just going to keep me from winning." The other candidate said that I was going to "take votes away" from him. After a brief discussion, my treasurer told him that I had as much right to run as anyone and that he and his team needed to run their own campaign and we would run ours.

Of course, my treasurer was correct as far as he went, but unfortunately he also got dragged into a discussion about "whose votes I would take." There's no shame in that; I fell into it myself when he told me about their conversation. In fact, I've fallen into it numerous times before. I'm not going to anymore.

You see, this whole concept of Libertarian candidates taking votes away from other candidates is founded on the belief that certain votes belong to certain candidates. How arrogant! Every vote belongs to the voter that casts it. Democrats and Republicans may have forgotten that simple fact, but we shouldn't.

On Election Day a number of people will choose to cast their vote for me. I'd like to think that all of them would do so because they believe I'm the best candidate for the job. But I realize some will be voting for me just because I'm not one of the others - the least of three evils, as it were. Others will vote for me because, after meeting me, they think I seem like a nice guy, or they know someone who knows me, or they hear or read something I say during the campaign and it makes sense to them, or my name is the last one they see before they walk into the polling place, or they always vote a straight ticket for the party to which I belong. In short, people will vote for me for all the same reasons that other people will vote for one of the other candidates. If I weren't in the race, would some of them vote instead for that other candidate - the one that accosted my treasurer? Undoubtedly. But if that candidate dropped out, I'd get more votes. Should I lambaste him for being in the race? No. Unlike him, I think voters should have more choices, not fewer.

So what should we say to those who accuse us of taking "their" votes? Here is how I'm going to handle it from now on. First, I reject the terms of their argument. I can't take votes from them; they don't own them. The votes belong to the voters, who can cast them for any candidate they choose. Second, I'm trying to convince the voters to choose me when they cast their vote. In other words, I'm working to earn the votes I get, as opposed to the other candidates who seem to think they are entitled to certain votes. Finally, I'll be proud of every vote I earn. Whether I get 50 or 5000, every vote will come from someone who chooses me over the other candidates. Those voters will get to pick their first choice - a choice they wouldn't have if I weren't in the race.