Primer: Voting Third Party

For much of this election cycle, it looked like Robert F Kennedy Jr would pick up crucial votes across the country, potentially playing a third party spoiler role for nominees Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Polling at around 8% nationwide, RFK Jr. was just popular enough to draw significant attention and could have swung the election with a good performance in some swing states. Of course, he has now dropped out and endorsed Trump, but his name will appear on ballots across the country nevertheless. And three other third party candidates, though they’re not particularly formidable candidates, still remain: Cornel West as an independent, Jill Stein for the Green Party, and Chris Oliver as a Libertarian. These candidates have no possible route to the presidency, however, and their roles in this competitive election are purely to draw voters away from Trump or Harris. Does it make sense for voters to vote for someone they know won’t win, potentially lifting their less preferable candidate among the two main parties? To start this school year, the Political Union will be debating the resolution: U.S. citizens should not waste their vote on a third party candidate.

The strong argument on the pro side comes down to math and logic. Voting for a candidate with no realistic chance of winning is “wasting” a vote because citizens are indirectly supporting the party they like the least. They would be violating Duverger’s Law, which explains the emergence of two parties in our political system: voters should gravitate towards one of the two main parties because it offers greater expected utility. A Libertarian might vote for Oliver, a former Democrat, but the impact of the vote is significant insofar as it isn’t a ballot for Harris, and therefore it helps Trump. In our winner-take-all system, it is simply irrational to vote for a third party. 

The con side’s argument must rationalize this behavior. For one, in a democracy no vote is a “waste.” Voters may be shying away from the two main parties as a protest vote, expressing their disillusionment with the establishment and our political system in general. This is a valid, defensible action. Our Democratic and Republican politicians, working in their own self-interest,  design laws to stymie third parties, so a presidential ballot for a third party candidate is the clearest signal of disapproval possible. Further, as political parties grow more nationalized and as a result homogenous across localities, voters need ways to express their more specific wishes that might not be addressed by the main parties. 

Join our debate this Monday, September 30 at 7pm in Scott Hall 201!

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