LogFAQs > #979196471

Muscles posted...

This kind of thinking always bothers me, a non vote or 3rd party vote isn't the same as vote for *candidate you don't like*, I have been told a vote for 3rd parties is a vote for either candidate depending who I'm talking to.

I would put it this way. Who are you most opposed to? A vote for a third party is most likely to benefit whoever you least want to win.

Let's say you're a Trump supporter. You like his policies, but maybe you don't like his rhetoric or you think he's going about things the wrong way, or the criminal charges bother you. So you say hey, I hate Biden, but I can't bring myself to voting for Trump, even though I agree with him on most things. So let me vote for a third party candidate whom I find more palatable than Trump, but doesn't have his baggage. This basically takes a vote away from the guy you kind of like, Trump, and gives a vote to someone who has zero chance of winning. Essentially reducing Trump's vote count by one. And thus making it more likely for Biden to be elected.

Let's say you prefer Biden over Trump, because Trump wants to end democracy and has fascistic tendencies that you just can't get on board with. You find some of Biden's policies okay, but you just don't like Biden. Maybe you are concerned about the Hunter Biden laptop stuff, or maybe you think his handling of Israel just makes voting for him a non-starter. Even though you think his policies are most certainly better than Trump's, or you're at least closer to him than Trump on policy. You decide to vote third party. Again, this essentially takes a vote away from Biden and increases the likelihood that Trump, the person you despise much more, is elected.

In our current system, voting for a third party is equivalent to taking away a vote from the person from the two main options who you are more closely aligned with, but aren't fully on board with, thus making the other person who you dislike even more, more likely to get elected.