A vote for a candidate is not an unqualified endorsement of the candidate. There are plenty of people I've voted for, even though I don't think they have great

A vote for a candidate is not an unqualified endorsement of the candidate. There are plenty of people I've voted for, even though I don't think they have great character and/or have done shady things in the past and/or have shown poor judgement on some issues. For instance, my present city council member has had an extramarital affair with one of his staffers, but OTOH he's something of a visionary as far as city planning goes. I would vote for him again, despite the fact that his actions were deplorable. Aside: my views on this used to be closer to yours. As years went by I became convinced that withholding my vote was not sending any message (in a Turing sense, principled apathy looks a lot like mere apathy, and may indeed lead to it). Witnessing some very, very close elections was also a factor.