• RegalPotoo@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        8 months ago

        That’s not how the US electoral system works. If the vote turns out 49%/48%/3%, then the guy with 49% wins. Unless your 3rd party is polling in the mid forties (and is therefore not a 3rd party) all you are doing is vote splitting

      • Laticauda@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        No, sadly with the way US voting works at the moment the chances of a third party winning is microscopic, so voting for a third party is only taking votes away from the only party that stands a chance of beating the republicans. Statistically third party voters would be more likely to vote democratic than republican if they didn’t have a third party option, so in reality the more people voting third party the more they’re helping republicans win. It sucks but that’s the reality.

          • Laticauda@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            8 months ago

            As much as it would be nice if the world worked that way, that’s not how the world works unfortunately.

              • Laticauda@lemmy.ca
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                edit-2
                8 months ago

                Your votes don’t exist in a vacuum. There absolutely needs to be election reform to make third party voting a more viable option instead of a liability, but it hasn’t happened yet so for now you live in a reality where you’re voting in an imperfect system and trying to will the fantasy of a perfect system into existence instead of acknowledging that isn’t helping anyone, least of all people who want to be able to actually vote third party.

        • hoosierHillPowderedCheese@midwest.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          8 months ago

          Statistically third party voters would be more likely to vote democratic than republican if they didn’t have a third party option,

          i haven’t voted for a democrat for president in over a decade and i’m not starting again this year.

      • littlewonder@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        8 months ago

        Do the work for third parties between elections. That’s when the hard-fought progress is made toward rising platforms and ideas. Vote third party in primaries. Attend third party meetings and help organize. But don’t make the work to spread new ideas and build other options even harder by allowing democracy to creep further backward and affect up to 35+ years of judicial decisions.

    • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      8 months ago

      Evan McMullin’s vote total in Minnesota in the 2016 Presidential election was larger than Hillary Clinton’s margin of victory. Gary Johnson’s vote total was almost 3 times McMullin’s total. Johnson’s vote total was larger than Clinton’s margin in Colorado, too. If it weren’t for third-party voters, Clinton would’ve had an even worse electoral college drubbing. (Perhaps this is the case in other states, too. Those are the two that I know off-hand.) Much has been made about how Jill Stein’s vote total in Wisconsin in 2016 was higher than Clinton’s margin of defeat, but without any 3rd party candidates, she would’ve lost by even more.

      In 2020, Jo Jorgensen’s vote total in Wisconsin was larger than Biden’s margin of victory, as well as in Minnesota, Arizona, and Georgia. Her vote total in Pennsylvania was very close to Biden’s margin of victory there. Without 3rd party candidates, Biden would’ve lost in 2020.

      This article is about Rep. Tim Walberg, who blew out Democratic Party challenger Bart Goldberg in 2022. The 3rd party candidates in that race were from the Libertarian and U.S. Taxpayers parties. Without them, Walberg’s margin of victory would’ve been greater.

      • Tinidril@midwest.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        8 months ago

        It’s absolutely true that voting third party is a really dumb strategy that will never achieve anything good and could conceivably allow for worse outcomes. It’s also true that this potentiality is way overblown because of ineffective Democratic politicians using third parties as an excuse for their pathetic underperformance.