The only way that could possibly effective is if it was paired with comprehensive voting reform in every state (well, every state that matters).
A third party cannot win with the current first-past-the-post system. It’s so obvious that I can’t imagine why it would need to be explained. Have a good leftist candidate, it’ll take votes from the liberal. Popular conservative alt candidate, will take votes from the Republican. With our current roughly 50/50 balance, either one could result in the candidate with less support for their ideology winning. That’s how you end up with something like (theoretically) 25% Stein, 35% Biden, 40% Trump, and Trump wins because he had the plurality. Great.
The only way that could possibly effective is if it was paired with comprehensive voting reform in every state (well, every state that matters).
A third party cannot win with the current first-past-the-post system. It’s so obvious that I can’t imagine why it would need to be explained. Have a good leftist candidate, it’ll take votes from the liberal. Popular conservative alt candidate, will take votes from the Republican. With our current roughly 50/50 balance, either one could result in the candidate with less support for their ideology winning. That’s how you end up with something like (theoretically) 25% Stein, 35% Biden, 40% Trump, and Trump wins because he had the plurality. Great.