What do the "Trump Tape" mean for November 8th?

As you probably know, a video (but the video part didn't show Trump) of Trump was released with crude comments about women.  They have been dubbed by social media and new outlets as the "Trump Tape".  Trump is no stranger to controversy, but this is creating a line in the sand for many republican leaders. Here is CNN's article of the status of republican congress members, and leaders: http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/08/politics/donald-trump-video-women-remarks-republicans/index.html . There is this suggestion that you can write in Pence instead of voting for Trump. However, write-in-laws are complicated and vary from state to state. In some cases, like Texas, if they didn't file paperwork saying they want to be a certified write in candidate, then the vote doesn't count and it's like you didn't vote at all. I would recommend looking  at ballotpedia.org for your state's information.  Now if you live in Texas and  voted for a certified write in candidate like Evan McMullin, that vote would count. Writing in someone who is not a candidate, has less of an effect on the election outcome, but if you vote consistently for one party or the other your absence of a vote for them has an (small) effect on  the outcome.  If people don't vote Trump and instead consider writing someone in or going third party, it may increase Hillary Clinton's chance of winning but that is complicated.  Now, if the third party and write in candidates DON'T change how a non-swing state votes, like Trump wins Texas, or Clinton wins California, the third party candidates don't impact the overall election much.  Now in swing states even a small percent of support for third party candidates can change the election.  If 10% of the people who voted for Romney in 2012 in North Carolina (about 5.1% of the overall vote) vote for Johnson, and everyone else votes for the same party  (which probably won't happen but this is an example) then the total would be 48% Clinton, 44.9% Trump, and 5.1% Johnson.  This would mean that North Carolina (a swing state) would flip sides from 2012. This doesn't mean you shouldn't vote for whoever you want. You can vote for whoever you want, but you can consider these things.  However if you look at my post from yesterday, you would notice if Trump got more than half  of the Johnson vote in Iowa, he could win it. In some cases like Michigan all the third party support couldn't help Trump win. So in my opinion going for a third party isn't going to change much, especially considering that some of the people voting third party this year are doing so because they don't want to vote for Hillary or Trump (I personally am making this decision). This is a continuing process and these things can change.  I also think Johnson may get a spike in support in the next couple of polls due to some republican-leaning votes dumping Trump. So yes, you can write in Pence, or vote Johnson if you want to dump Trump, and it won't necessarily win Clinton the election.  I will provide an update on this in about a week when post debate polls come out. I think Donald Trump will take a small hit in National polls, but in swing states it could have a larger effect.  I don't think all the voters who leave Trump will vote for Hillary, and I think most will go either back in undecided or the other category.

Disclaimer:  I am currently leaning towards voting for Johnson.  But you can vote for whomever you want.