We live in a representative democracy.
Unfortunately we don’t get much representation these days, if ever.
There is only one wasted vote, and that is the one not cast.
“We live in a representative democracy”
you only live in a representative democracy if you use the democratic process to elect somebody to represent you. If somebody just votes for people who lose bigtime, they aren’t participating in the democracy and have no representation.
And because most incumbents are easily re-elected, most challengers lose big-time.