[Request] If you don't live in a swing region/state, better to vote third party than waste your vote on an almost certain outcome. Yeah?
Is this logic flawed? Obviously in swing races, vote how it’s needed, but if it’s probably going to be a landslide, why not vote for a third party? Some regions even allow for multiple party representation if enough people show interest, so it could be doing future good (if you think more parties is better representation)
I believe every vote counts. People are moving more and things can change. I’m in Texas. People think it’s bright red but it’s all gerrymandering. In 2020 it was 52-46%. All those people who blew it of because they thought their vote didn’t matter…drag them to the fucking polls and at least support your down ballot candidates!
Did we learn nothing from 2016? Until the Electoral College is replaced, third parties are nothing but spoilers for federal elections. No state can be truly taken for granted. See Georgia, etc. in 2020.
I mean the vote has no practical effect in either case but differs in the message it sends.
With Trump on the ballot, supporting his main opponent to signal opposition to his candidacy was more important than supporting third party candidates, which I found fairly uninspiring in any case.
Why would supporting Biden be showing more of signal than voting for someone else? If I’m in a state that is going to be for Trump since it’s been Republican for every election since the party’s inception, what is the benefit in sending the message I voted for Biden vs John Doe in the gray party?
Because people look at the popular vote totals. Generally they don’t really look at the .3% the gray party got. But again, I think it’s all about what signals you want to send. Unfortunately, the electoral college makes it so most votes have little practical impact even in close races.
I think one argument against would be that there is a movement to change how the presidential election is decided. Your right, the electoral College doesn’t care who you vote for in an uncontested state. But if we can keep showing that it doesn’t represent the popular vote, then maybe something will change.
But is there any path for that to actually happen? In the US multiple recent presidential elections the popular vote didn’t align with the electoral college, and I haven’t heard of any actual movement towards changing that
Didn’t know about the last two hadn’t heard of much progress since 2019. Still, need quite a bit more before it matters literally at all. Maybe the wave of people voting for abortion rights can help flip enough seats to people who will support passing this stuff over the next few years.
No, the electoral college doesn’t have that power, but lawmakers do. And if enough states commit, the electoral college is effectively dead. Even if a minority of states stick with the electoral college system.
That’s a really good reason to talk to your state legislature about the national interstate popular vote compact - it’s a shitty reason to vote for a third party.
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