Voting for the candidate I want is never wasted

I was reading around, as I so often do, and noticed this article. While I'm not a fan of copy+paste arguments, it makes several very salient points that I don't think I could say better myself.

he most frequent objection to voting for a third party candidate is the "wasted vote" argument -- the idea that if you vote for someone who will not win, then your vote does not count.

Merely suggest that a friend or family member consider voting for a third party candidate and you will often hear the statement, "I don't want to waste my vote."

Before delving into the extent of the wasted vote myth, some other myths must be addressed first:

Myth #1: Third party candidates are never elected.

Ross Perot out-polled George Bush in Maine in 1992 and out-polled Bill Clinton in Utah in 1992. Perot polled
Minor parties won gubernatorial elections in Alaska, Connecticut, Maine, and Minnesota during the 1990s, and Lincoln Chafee was elected as an Independent to Rhode Island's governorship in 2010. In the 1990s, Independents were elected to Congress in Missouri, Vermont and Virginia. In the 2000s, Independents were elected to Congress in Connecticut and Vermont.

Independents are elected to state legislatures in almost every election cycle. Former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and current New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg were both elected as Independents.

The dominant party in Mexico between 1929 and 2000 lost the presidential election there in 2000.

New things are constantly happening in the world of politics. Overwhelming evidence suggests that voters not affiliated with either major party will decide the 2012 presidential race.

http://chelm.freeyellow.com/wastedvote.html

There is more to the article, but this should give you the jist of its points. Voting for the candidate that actually supports what you support is never wasting a vote. If the only measure of import for voting was whether a candidate/ballot initiative won or not, then most everyones vote is wasted.  If you reward a shitty candidate with your vote, why would you be surprised when another shitty candidate comes around? You've proven that you're not basing your vote on what you want but what you think will win. That's what gamblers do, and any serious gambler will tell you they lose a lot more than they win.