The other evening some friends and I got into a discussion about not voting when you disliked both options. I knew there was a logic issue at play here, but I couldn’t remember it during the heat of the battle. So I had to work it from scratch again and it took a while. We’ll save it here for quick reference in the future. Here is the logical reason to vote when there are two disliked options.

1. suppose A and B are up for election.
2. if you voted for B, you would help A be defeated.
3. if you voted for A, you would help B be defeated.
4. if you voted for no one, you would be helping the winner win.
5. suppose that both choices are bad, but all indications are that A is really the worst choice.
6. of the 3 options 2, 3, or 4, voting for B is the only way to help defeat A.