It may come as a bit of a surprise to many voters that come Nov. 8, you don’t have to cast your ballot for someone you can’t stomach, someone you can’t trust or both.

The Libertarian Party is fielding Governors Gary Johnson for President and Bill Weld for Vice President.  Both were Republican Governors in Democratic states and both were re-elected in landslides.  Enough said.

The Libertarian Party offers a lot to like for young voters.  It’s new, for one thing.  Nobody wants to be part of the stodgy, old political establishment.  Their website, www.lp.org, says the party was founded in Colorado in 1971.  They started out progressively by fielding a female candidate, Tonie Nathan, for vice president in 1972.  That year, she became the first woman to get an electoral vote.  The party is founded on the ideals of a free market economy, civil liberties and personal freedom.  They strive to make the government smaller and less obtrusive through privatizing certain programs and eliminating others.  They are not interested in lowering your income tax; they seek to eliminate it altogether. Their foreign policy consists of non-intervention, peace and free trade.

(Did I just write PEACE?  By the way, Johnson is, in my view, the peace candidate.)

Almost all Libertarian policy reverts to individual rights.  It seems to be the keystone that the whole foundation is built on and an ideal system to represent the best interest of each voter.  That’s really what we hope for when we vote: to have our best interest represented in Washington.

“Once somebody starts finding out what libertarianism is, there’s no going back,” Barry Hess, the Communications Director for the Arizona Libertarian Party, said. “You can’t unlearn the truth.”

Hess said the Libertarian Party should be attractive to millennials and young voters on several levels.  The right to be left alone, the right to self-defend and the right to self-determinism are key issues among young voters he has visited with.

“We protect the world’s smallest minority: the individual,” said Hess.

Hess said that Libertarians are a lot like the “Hobbits” of the political world.  They want peace and to be left alone.  They don’t want the evil power for themselves.  They want to destroy it for the good of all.

Hess also had voting advice for young people who might be confused about how to cast their ballot.  He said that the only wasted vote is one not cast in good conscience.  He also warned against “defensive” voting, or voting for a candidate you don’t like or support, just to keep the other from getting elected.

“The smartest thing that people can do is keep your vote in your own pile,” Hess said. “So that they know.  Because they are afraid of the votes they didn’t get.”

Regardless for whom you cast your ballot, it’s important, as a citizen of a free country, to vote.  Even if it’s for “None of the Above.”