Perhaps the most meticulously covered event in the news occurs every four years with the presidential election. Thanks to mass media, Americans are usually left with a big, stinking pile of hopeful candidates’ dirty laundry, and not the slightest idea of how those candidates would run the country. Even the 2012 election has already been plagued with scandal due to Herman Cain’s sexual assault allegations.

What can America do to get out of this political  hole we’ve dug ourselves into?  I posed this same question to my grandpa, the Honorable Thomas Gettemy Peoples IV, and he told me of his own little solution that he’s been doing for years: he votes for himself to be president.

No, Grandpa Peoples is not an independent or some rogue presidential candidate. This is just his own form of protest against the state of things. Even though he didn’t agree with any of the candidates, he still wanted to exercise his right to vote. So Grandpa Peoples simply fills in the blank with his own name.

If only one person voted like this, it wouldn’t mean a whole lot, but what if everyone put down their own name for president come election day? What a shock to the system that would be.

The two-party system exists to establish two candidates that everyone thinks have the best chance to win. Massive funding is pumped through the two primaries’ campaigns like life support, and at the end many are left unsatisfied. Sometimes I find myself wondering if we even have a choice at all. That’s exactly what the write-in vote is, though: a choice.

Most Americans have been taught that you’re either Democratic or Republican, black or white, and that no gray area exists. The write-in is a direct protest of this idea. The system the U.S. has for electing presidents has shown its flaws, and a prime example is the 2000 election, when Florida had to recount several times because of malfunctioning voting machines. Ultimately, the decision of that election still came down to the Electoral College.

The Electoral College is an example of indirect election as opposed to direct election, which is the people’s popular vote.  A 2011 Gallup poll conducted by Lydia Saad concluded that the majority of Americans would swap the Electoral College with a popular vote, an election completely by the people.

That said, I don’t know if I will vote for myself because I think my grandpa would make a better president. So whether Peoples is president or we have a president by the people, let’s hope most of us can find satisfaction in our country’s choice.