When will you stop voting for the lesser of two evils? (Poll)

[Chathamization]

59. We have the opportunity to choose the Democratic candidate in the primary. Someone who can't win the

primary isn't likely to win the general (though it happens; look at Lieberman).

Anyway, it really depends on the election for me. If there's a tight race in my jurisdiction between a centrist and a right-winger I'm going to vote for the centrist. That's not always the case, though. Recently there was an election where the top two candidates would both get the position. I ended up voting against the Democratic (who I knew was going to win) and for a good progressive independent (though in actuality a Democrat, but they became an independent because of the nature of the election) and the Green Party candidate I knew wouldn't win (in part because he was trying to run a strong campaign, and I hoped he'd stay involved in politics). The Democratic front-runner was in no danger of losing, and if they lost they wouldn't lose to anyone further to the right (the next several candidates were all at least as liberal, probably more so).

For the presidency - the electoral votes here will always go to Democrats, so I have the option of voting for a third party candidate if I like. But who would I vote for? The Greens have done such a poor job that a candidate is more likely to win if they run as an independent than as a Green. I often vote for whoever the Democratic candidate is, but it's also someone I usually voted against in the primary. I hope that centrists would support progressives who win in the primary as well. The primary is actually a pretty good system, and it'd be a shame to throw it away just because we weren't able to get the votes at the moment for some of the elections.