In 2,600 miles of driving across America the last few weeks, my wife and I saw the signs of the time — or rather we didn’t see the signs of the time and that worries me.

It’s mid-September in a presidential year, the time in the seemingly endless campaign when Americans really take notice. Yard signs are supposed to sprout in late-summer lawns and bumper stickers appear on autos from sea to shining sea.

But it’s not happening this year, at least not by our bumper sticker watch.

The long meandering drive from our home in Virginia to our new home in Wyoming took us around the D.C. Beltway, and up Route 95 to Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York City, Connecticut, Rhode Island and on to Boston. From there we went north to New Hampshire and Maine where we reveled in two weeks of no newspapers or Internet.

On the drive west, we drove via interstates into Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, through the heart of Chicago to Wisconsin. From there we took secondary roads to Dubuque and Route 20 through small farming towns in Iowa and Nebraska to Wyoming.

In all that driving — through states both deep red and deep blue — we saw three cars sporting Trump/Pence bumper stickers and only one with a Clinton bumper sticker. (There was also a car still adorned by a “Bernie 2016” sticker.)

Think of it. Out of the thousands of cars with which we shared the road, we only spied four that wore presidential choices.

I understand that this is not in any way scientific data, but we kept watch and our results do, I believe, tell us a great deal about this year’s election.

Unlike the cars we passed, every conversation we had along the way included a discussion of presidential politics. People are agonizing over how to cast their votes. Our friends, as you might imagine, lean Republican and recoil at the thought of Hillary Clinton in the White House doing nearly irreparable damage by, for example, appointing Supreme Court justices.

At the same time, everyone expressed dismay at the thought of voting for Donald Trump — even if Mike Pence is his vice president.

The conversations can be summed up in the words of Mr. Phil Rosen from Waukesha, Wisconsin who told USA Today, “I am sick to my stomach. … I don’t want Hillary. I don’t trust her. Trump? How can you trust anything he says?”

The choice between, as Peggy Noonan characterized it in the Wall Street Journal, “Crazy Man versus Criminal,” is not a happy one.

And if our bumper sticker count is any indication, many, many voters will choose to just sit it out on November 8, believing that neither Clinton nor Trump has the good character, integrity or moral compass necessary to be president. As a result, they will reason, since neither deserves to be president, they cannot in good conscience vote for either.

It seems to me that “none of the above” is a perfectly reasonable position, but if not voting for president means not voting, we have a huge problem — and we’ll miss a huge opportunity.

If you believe that our next president will be either Crazy Man or Criminal, you nonetheless have a responsibility and opportunity to keep him or her in check. And while you wouldn’t guess it from the past eight years, the Founding Fathers designed a system to do just that. Congress is supposed to serve as that check on the president, preventing rule by fiat (AKA: “executive orders”). So regardless of which presidential candidate you dislike most, you can help elect a Congress to rein in his or her excesses.

Every seat in the House of Representatives is up for election as are about a third of the Senate (not to mention governors, state legislators and local officials).

This is an opportunity since, as is likely, voter turnout is poor, those who show up and vote will decide the makeup of Congress.

Regardless of whether you’re enthusiastic about one candidate, or whether you hold your nose, “pull the lever” for Clinton or Trump, and then feel the need to wash your hands, or whether you vote for a third party candidate, or whether you skip voting for president altogether (Yes, you can go to the polls and do that), your vote for House and Senate will go further than ever before in counteracting whatever you fear will emanate from the White House.

So campaign for the good people starting today, vote on November 8 and encourage others to do the same.

If we Christians don’t figure this out, show up at the polls, and make the difference, someone else will.