As Election Day draws nearer, it seems increasingly common for former President Donald Trump to say something on the campaign trail that draws backlash. On Sunday, he was on Fox News calling for the U.S. military to be deployed to fight “the enemy from within” — meaning Americans he deems “radical left lunatics,” a group he termed more dangerous than “China, Russia and all these countries.” During a Saturday rally in California, Trump said a female heckler should “get the hell knocked out of her” — apparently because he found her comments disruptive. Such behavior only reinforces the view in Maryland that the 78-year-old is unfit for high office and, in all likelihood, he will lose the state in a landslide as he did in 2016 (when he received 34% of the vote) and 2020 (32%).

It’s no surprise that former Gov. Larry Hogan, the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in Maryland and a leading Trump critic within his party, has made it clear he will not be voting for the ex-president, as he hasn’t in past elections either. Does that mean he will vote for Vice President Kamala Harris instead? No. In a meeting last month with The Baltimore Sun Editorial Board, Hogan made clear (as he has in other forums) he won’t be voting for the Democratic nominee either. His plan instead will be to cast a write-in vote for someone else, a move he acknowledged would have only a “symbolic” purpose. But what is that symbolism exactly?

Voting is serious business. Or at least it ought to be approached as such. To write in Ronald Reagan, as Hogan says he did four years ago, means the former governor may have avoided casting a ballot for Joe Biden but failed to use his vote in any productive way. Reagan died in 2004. Hogan can argue that it made no difference in the outcome, which is absolutely true, but what are others supposed to make of this? Are we more likely to increase voter turnout or shrink it by saying Maryland votes don’t matter in the presidential election? When it’s time to make a hard choice, should we bail out? Are fellow Marylanders better off putting random names on the ballot? How about our neighbors in Pennsylvania, which is widely regarded as one of the most important battlegrounds in this election?

There are times when former Governor Hogan projects himself as above the political fray. And then there are times when he seems captured by it. In an election with so much on the line, failing to make a choice between two presidential candidates with dramatically different visions for the country strongly suggests the latter.