Dear Reverend, My best friend says he's going to write in a candidate for president in the upcoming election. I firmly believe he would be wasting his vote, and this election is too important to do such a thing. Whenever I try to convince him of that, we get into a big argument. I don't want to ruin our friendship over this, but I really want to change his mind. What can I do? Election Inspector (man, 27) Dear Election Inspector, In 2016, I was really excited about Bernie Sanders running for president. When it turned out he wasn't going to be the Democratic candidate, I was beyond bummed. I had voted for him for every office he'd run for since I was 18, and I wasn't about to stop. So, even though he didn't endorse the write-in candidacy, I went ahead and wrote him in anyway. (Sorry, Bernie.) That election certainly didn't turn out the way I'd hoped, but I still didn't feel like I had thrown away my vote. I'd gone with my gut. Was that the smart thing to do? I don't know, but it felt right to me at the time. All this to say, if your friend truly believes in his candidate, telling him that he's wasting his vote is most likely a waste of your breath. If he feels like you're belittling his political views, you may even be adding fuel to his write-in flame. If you really want to try to change his mind, keep the focus on the candidates and discuss the reasons you think the person you support would be a better choice. I hope that your friendship is strong enough to withstand some healthy political debate, but you may have to agree to disagree to keep the buddy boat afloat. Perhaps a better use of your time and energy would be to work on canvassing all the undecided voters out there. Good luck and God bless, The Reverend…