”This helps take away votes from Joe Biden,” the activist told one person at the rally, according to a video posted to X (formerly Twitter) by a Washington Post reporter. “We’re helping the Trump team who’s trying to get him on there,” added a woman by his side.
I don’t subscribe to the belief that third party votes are “owed” to anybody. I’ve voted for third party candidates in the past, hoping to send a message to candidates from the two parties, with almost no success.
For a while, I worked as a realtor, and we would talk about the value of direct mailer postcards. The critical point was that you were trying to send a message to the recipient in the time that it took them to see your postcard and walk it over to their recycling bin. That was your window, and if your message took longer than that to digest, it was wasted.
That’s how I think of the message you send with a third party vote. The message lasts as long as it takes for the party to walk your votes over to their trashcan. Your candidate won’t win. If the message is strong, like say for instance the margin of victory is smaller than the percent of third party votes, they might remember you in the next election. Maybe. But they are just as likely to write it off as a fluke or an outlier, because that’s easier than introspection.
There are two viable parties. You can support one or the other, or neither. But there is a clear difference between the two, and while you might not like everything about one party, there’s going to be one party that stands for everything you hate.
You can vote against the party you hate, but if you don’t, you can’t really complain when they win and do everything you hate. Voting for a third party does nothing at all.
a vote for any party is a vote against all other parties.
Not really. A vote for a third oarty is a vote for nobody.
only a no vote is a vote for nobody. don’t spread misinformation.
If you go to a restaurant, let’s say McDonald’s, and you order something they don’t have, like oysters and pasta, you aren’t going to get what you ordered. It’s as though you haven’t ordered at all, because you won’t get it.
You might think that ordering it could let McDonald’s know that there is a demand for oysters and pasta, and maybe they will change the menu.
That won’t work.
You might think other people in the restaurant will overhear you order it and decide they want that, too.
That won’t work either.
Your order serves no purpose. Technically, you’ve asked for something, demanded it even, but you won’t get it and you never will change the restaurant or the menu that way.
Telling anyone otherwise is spreading misinformation.
there will be more than two names on the ballot, and write ins are always allowed. this analogy doesn’t hold up.
They ask what you want at McDonald’s, and you can ask for anything you want. That doesn’t mean you’ll get it. The analogy is accurate.
but write in candidates can win. McDonald’s menu options are disanalogous to voting.
For downballot races? Sure. If you’re voting for a state rep or some uncontested local race, every vote counts. But we’re talking about a presidential election, and under the current rules, a write in candidate will never win.