Demetry Belfort (right), with Brielle Quarles: “If Trump wins, so be it. I’ve voted my principles." Brielle Quarles and Demetry Belfort don’t believe the doomsday-for-democracy prophecies of a jack-booted Trump future.They feel burned by an Obama presidency that failed to deliver systemic change on housing, policing, immigration, and American ​“imperialism.”And they don’t approve of a current Democratic Party leader who flaunts ownership of a Glock pistol.So, with a commitment to their principles, they voted for a third-party potential spoiler. Quarles and Belfort — a thoughtful young couple, both the children of middle-class, traditional liberal, Obama-loving parents — offered those reasons Wednesday when explaining why they cast their presidential vote for the Green Party candidate Jill Stein.The scene was the busy early-voting site on the second floor of City Hall.Belfort, 26, is a graduate of New Haven Academy and Clark University in Worcester, Mass. In high school he was an intern right across from Wednesday’s busy voting location, serving in the communications department of then-Mayor John DeStefano.Quarles is a 24-year-old registered nurse finishing her studies at Yale School of Nursing to become an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN). She had just sent in an absentee ballot, because she’s registered in Virginia, where she grew up in Alexandria. Belfort, meanwhile, cast his early ballot for Stein in-person at City Hall.Both Quarles’s parents are lawyers in the Washington, D.C. area, her mom a dedicated Democrat and ardent supporter of former President Barack Obama and current Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. Quarles said she, too, was an Obama fan, when she was 8 years old.“In the 2000s my mom volunteered for Obama,” she recalled, ​“and dragged me and my sister around door-knocking. It really was exciting and we even went to the inauguration. It was so cold, she got pneumonia. I’ll never feel that excited for a politician ever again,” she said, with a recollection that seemed also to contain a resolve.Now Quarles says, ​“I don’t see the Democrats as a ​‘lesser of two evils’ but as a different kind of evil.”She used that charged term to characterize the party, who historically have made huge promises but have not offered any real large-scale changes, like ending ​“police budgets” or addressing ​“the genocide in Palestine.”“To me that’s another evil that appeals to a different kind of person, and it’s just as evil even if embodied in a woman of color.” Quarles said she’s of course aware that her candidate Stein is not going to win, but she hardly sees the vote as futile. It neither worries her nor makes her feel any guilt that such a vote could take away critical votes from Vice President and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. While that may not be the case in Connecticut or Virginia, that Green Party-as-spoiler scenario is in play in the razor-tight races in the battleground states.“The vote is a step to make short-term changes, and it also is sending a message for me: That I’m really tired of the two-party system,” continued Quarles, who self described as a communist, with a small ​“c.”By that she meant that her ideal society is one where there’s free health care; that health care and housing are human rights; and that a political system would be primarily ​“community based with active participants on a local level.”“ ​‘How,’ ” she said her mother jokes with her, “ ​‘did I send you to one of the most expensive colleges in America to become a communist!’“My answer is, that’s why!”Her Stein vote, she said, is ​“a small way for me to resist the options that are available.” She characterized those expected options as voting for the ​“lesser evil.” And to ​“vote blue no matter what.”In sum she characterized the vote as ​“a bit aspirational, a bit of protest,” and at the same time, yes, there is a touch of futility as well in her gesture.Quarles’s boyfriend Belfort expressed no such conflict. He described his past votes for Democrats as ​“no longer the moral response to politics today.”He feels that the Democrats have taken a right-wing turn, as he described it, on law enforcement and immigration, and said, ​“I remember when the Democrats would never have had a candidate proud of carrying a Glock.”“I’m not comfortable,” he said, ​“with the assumption they have my vote. Their assumption has led to inaction on issues important to me. I’d say the Republicans listen to their base more than the Democrats.“I was a Bernie fan but a lot of us are disillusioned by the whole political process. This duopoly should not be our only option. In other countries it’s a better system, with many parties. America deserves more than two options.”But what about Trump’s felony convictions, his authoritarian sympathies, his genuinely questionable personal qualities and character? “Trump’s character traits I abhor,” Belfort replied. ​“But I vote policy. With Obama, we fell for his sterling character, but what followed were policies that disappointed, that didn’t match up, except for the Affordable Care Act.”Belfort said he is not impressed now with Kamala Harris’s policies, domestic or foreign. That her proposal of $25,000 to assist new home buyers doesn’t come near addressing the lives and concerns of working-class people. And that he does not want his taxes to go to paying for two-ton bombs to be dropped by America’s ally Israel in Gaza.“If you walk out this door, there are panhandlers, a multitude of social issues that should be for us to address here. Both parties have been unwilling to create change in this country. Billions are being spent in Ukraine and the Middle East. Our money should not be to fuel war and should be redirected to solve social problems like housing, health care, food insecurity, and climate change,” he said. He also pointed out that an absence of serious discussion about climate change in the campaign has been glaring.How wide-spread is the disaffection with Democrats among young people in their circle? “There’s lots of disaffection with Democrats,” he answered, ​“especially among the usual constituencies. I see it a lot among Gen Z.“And although others grapple with the [fear] that ​‘this is an election that will decide democracy,’ I reject that warning,” he said. “Trump’s threats aren’t believable.” He said that past ​“doomsday” predictions didn’t pan out, ​“so his threats are … well, there are threats on both sides.”“If Trump wins, so be it. I’ve voted my principles. And if Harris loses it won’t be because of Gen Z or the Muslim votes. It’ll be because of her failure to be in touch with her traditional base.“I’m not morally superior to someone who votes for Trump or Harris. We should vote our morals and principles and be secure in that.”