Protest votes = wasted votes! I protested in my first two elections. Forty years ago I skipped the top line on the ballot, and four years later, in 1980, I voted for John Anderson, a Republican congressman running as an independent.

I got a pass with my protest votes, for they affected outcomes not at all. In my state the candidates I was least likely to vote for—President Gerald Ford (running against the man who beat him, Governor Jimmy Carter) and Governor Ronald Reagan (who beat President Carter)—won. Still, I felt righteous and pure, and also knew our nation would survive, no matter what. (I had history with the Carters in the 1976 Wisconsin primary, which is why I