The thing is, your voice can also add to the din of noise that drowns out the signal. Not every vote adds signal.

Here the problem is when you go down the ballot and reach the judges, schoolboard, and other offices where most people have no idea who the candidates are and many just vote randomly.

In Arizona there was a campaign that unseated an incumbent schoolboard member by a rival candidate whose last name, if some letters were transposed, was a famous local figure. The funny last name guy won.

So go ahead and vote, but please leave blank or skip over any of the candidates that you haven't researched. Don't vote randomly - some people are trying to have a real election.

I'm pretty sure many voters are voting based on colors. They researched which team they like the most and now they vote for that team each time. And likely true for more than just the USA.

Indeed, as closest coalition is most likely to result in closest policies desired.

It leads to abominations of platform planks, but in our race to the bottom as least you get close to what you think you want.

I advocate joining a revolutionary political party instead. If you have a big enough constituency that can cause problems, they will eventually have to acquiesce to demands as opposed to simply controlling the choices or ignoring the results of a vote (which I would point out happens routinely, even in presidential elections such as the 2000 election theft or the attempted theft and coup of 2020).