It’s a tweet I’ve seen more than once — “lol I’m voting for Trump as a joke,” paraphrased in multiple ways. It’s … sigh. I wish I didn’t have to write out an article explaining why, exactly, you shouldn’t do this, but I will. Don’t toss your vote away on a joke.

You may not like all of the candidates for president; you might not like any of them. Don’t throw your vote away on a joke, though. If enough people do that, a president who otherwise might not have won can, well, win. We could get someone that people don’t want in office voted in by people who don’t want him in office, just because votes were tossed away on a joke.

Choose the lesser of two evils when it comes to that day you have to cast your vote. Even if you don’t like either the Republican or Democrat presidential candidate, don’t vote on a joke. Choose a third party candidate or vote for whoever you think is the best between the two. A joke? A joke vote just puts the candidate you dislike the most one step closer to becoming president.

For many people here — myself included — this is your first time voting for president. It’s new, it’s big and it’s a lot. You might not know a lot about the candidates, and that’s okay! But don’t, don’t, throw away your vote.

Select a candidate based on the knowledge you do have; better yet, while you still have this much time, research. What are the views of the candidates leading in the parties? Who do you like the most? The least? Which candidates do you consider a complete joke? Yeah, that last one — don’t vote for them. Don’t vote as a joke.

If you legitimately want to vote for Donald Trump, have done your research and know his policies and have decided he’s the best — fine. Vote for what you think is right. No one can make you vote otherwise. But don’t vote for Trump as a joke. Vote for Trump if you actually want him in office — don’t vote for him because you think it’s funny.

Don’t vote for Clinton because you think it’s funny. Or Sanders. Or Carson. Don’t vote for any candidate that you don’t want in office, guys. This may be, for some of us, our first chance to influence this decision, but don’t joke vote.

We are part of the last decade of the millennials, voting and heading off into the world. Is this really how we want to make our mark? Wasting our votes on jokes and idly tossing them away? Even not voting would be better – while we wouldn’t influence the voting, and leave that up to the older generations, at least we wouldn’t be voting for a candidate that we thought was ridiculous.

Don’t use up your vote on a joke. Vote for someone else – whoever you think is the best. Don’t joke vote.

If you do, you just might end up with a joke for a president, whoever you think that would be. Let’s not, okay?