• stebo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 days ago

    In a first past the post voting system like america has, third parties will never get a significant amount of votes. Even if they would get like 5%, which would be a lot for a third party (10 times the amount of the green party in 2024), it would make no difference whatsoever on the election outcome. Sure the winning party might have a smaller margin on the popular vote, but that’s totally irrelevant since you can win the election without a majority on the popular vote anyway.

    Then 5% of the population has wasted their vote, and if they’re smart they won’t repeat that mistake by the next election and make their vote actually matter. I don’t think the exponential thing works because people who voted third party will probably regret their decision as it leads to a win for the greater evil party.

    I agree that if you do not live in a swing state, your vote doesn’t really matter anyways and voting third party might make sense. However in general, voting a third party only makes sense when at least 1/3 of the population does the same, which is never gonna happen.

    The only way for America to get out of this two party competition, is to change the voting system and make it actually proportional like a real democracy. Obviously neither of the parties will ever change the system because it benefits them, so that change might require some significant events to happen…

    • Petter1@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      Well, you are right 😌 I’m just too optimistic, but that is a personal trait that I know I have 😸