The upcoming elections have been very discouraging for many Americans. In fact, the American Psychological Association found that “nearly 7 out of 10 Americans are very stressed about the upcoming presidential elections.” NPR reported on this study and discussed the reasons many people are feeling especially anxious about the elections, whether they were concerned about their candidate winning or were simply exhausted by the political climate.
The major media outlets are presenting two candidates to the American public, neither of which seem desirable to many voters. Some voters are die-hard supporters of one of the candidates, while others don’t feel as though they can justify voting for either candidate for a variety of reasons. Others feel that the best they can do is to vote for the lesser of two evils, but there are many debates on who that may be.
Despite these controversies, many Hollywood celebrities like Demi Levato, Samuel L. Jackson and Viola Davis are encouraging voting, according to People Magazine. As citizens, voting is an opportunity to influence the government, but in the minds of some voters, their options for exercising their civic opportunity are bleak.
“Really I was tired of having to pick between two candidates that I don’t like. I was tired of having to pick between the lesser of two evils, as people call it,” said one voter in North Carolina to his local news station. But what if there was a third option?
While only two candidates have been involved in the public debates, there is a third option on every ballot in the United States: Jo Jorgenson, a candidate running on the Libertarian Party’s platform. The theme characterizing most of her policies is less government regulation.
“Big government mandates and programs created these problems. To solve them, we need to make government smaller—much, much smaller,” her website states. Her website is a great resource for anyone looking to know the specifics of the types of policies she supports. To many, she may seem like the ideal candidate, a moderate option compared to the other two extremes. She is potentially a candidate people can support without compromising their morals.
Though Jorgenson will be the only third-party candidate listed on every US voting ballot, some states will include a few more options. Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins is on the ballot in 29 states and a few other candidates will be on the ballots of fewer than 20 states, including Kanye West, who will be on the ballots of 12 states. Some people may feel as if one of these lesser known candidates better aligns with their views However, they wonder whether casting a vote for a third party is a waste of a vote.
The United States electoral system is organized in such a way that third parties are not viable for long periods of time. Essentially, the arrangement of our electoral system makes it difficult for third parties to exist successfully.
Dr. Horne, associate professor of political studies at Covenant, said, “The logic of SMD (Single-member district) + FPTP (first past the post) elections makes the ongoing, electorally competitive presence of a third-party extremely unlikely.”
This is a summary of an empirical law in political science known as Duverger’s law which states, “single-ballot plurality-rule elections structured within single-member districts tend to favor a two-party system.” This is how elections in the United States are structured and as such, many voters believe that voting third party is a throwaway vote because that party will not achieve enough support to overcome one of the main candidates.
Duverger’s law establishes that it is highly unlikely for a third-party candidate to defeat a mainstream candidate; however, votes cast in favor of the third party could still have an effect on the presidential race.
A vote cast for the third party obviously takes away a vote from one of the two main parties, sometimes referred to as the “spoiler effect.” This can deter some voters from selecting the third-party candidate because it may result in the unintentional election of the candidate they dislike. Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley of Rice University even went so far as to say to the Associated Press that another party besides Republican or Democrat “fundamentally changed the course of the 21st century,” by taking votes away from the main parties.
Third-party votes could make a difference in the outcome of the elections by taking away votes from another candidate, but they aren’t necessarily viable options for voters looking to avoid electing one of the two main candidates. A vote for the third party will likely just tip the scales for one of the main candidates.
Despite this, Libertarian candidate Jo Jorgenson is hopeful, even though the polls only show her as possessing 4% of registered voters’ support, according to the Pew Research Center. She stated in a YouTube video posted on August 9 that, “There are something like 40 million Americans who lean Libertarian. If everybody voted the way they wanted, we would win overwhelmingly.”
Jorgenson also encouraged voters, “If it’s somebody who lives in a very red or very blue state, I say you’re wasting your vote by voting for whoever is going to take your state anyway…If you’re in California, your vote is wasted if you are voting for Joe Biden, so how about voting for what you really want?”
For some, voting for a third party is a form of protest against the actions of the two main parties. In a daily news podcast put out by WORLD radio called The World and Everything In It, reporter Anna Johanson interviewed a voter in Virginia who stated, “To abstain from voting for one of the two parties and voting for a third one is communicating dissatisfaction in the candidate and saying, well, you need to do something different.”
Dr. Horne also mentioned, “Insofar as a vote for a third party helps signal voter discontent with the direction of the major parties, it isn't a wasted vote—if we think of voting as being not just about our candidate winning or losing but as an opportunity to signal discontent to party elites.”
Essentially, third-party voting comes down to what voters hope to accomplish with their vote. It is highly unlikely for a third-party candidate to win in the United States political system, but a vote for a third party will still have an effect. It will change the dynamics of vote distribution among the two main candidates but it could also be a protest against the intense partisanship characterizing the election.
In the same report, Johanson summed up the opinion of another interviewee: “It depends on what you want to do with your ballot. You can vote as a political statement. You can vote for the person you think is most qualified, or the one you agree with the most, or the one with the best shot at winning.” It will be interesting to discover how third-party voting influences this year’s presidential election.