Voting third party in Presidential elections is a scam

In California, the vote's already decided. Vote any way you want.

Elaborate

Blue, blue, blue. Bluer than blue. True blue. Blue bayou blue. 50 shades of blue.

Very good! Now try constructing a sentence that has more substantial and relevance to my meme instead of bitching about the color blue.

I refuse to construct your argument for you. Mine has been laid down and expressed in detail. More effort, if you would please.

You do have something to say, yes?

Their votes made a huge difference in 1912 and 1992. And Green votes likely made the 2000 and 2016 elections.
But, I much prefer Australia's preferential voting system, where a minor party vote is not a waste (and where a few minor party candidates are elected at each election).

Mmm, “matter” is the trigger word. Yes, they effect the outcome. So does voter turn out. There is no difference between voting third party and voting not at all. Im not a fan of siphon votes. Yes, a preferential voting seems better but I honestly don’t know much about it.

Well, I know about it because I'm an Aussie. It basically ensures that a candidate cannot win without a majority (as opposed to a plurality) of the vote.

Ah, I suppose I should be more considerate and make sure people understand I mean American Presidential elections then. And even then, from the perspective that... who ever you're voting for... doesn't actually win if you vote third party.

I don't think this is quite true. If a significant number of people who no.rmally vote one way or the other vote for 3rd party Candidates instead it can change election results

Except people don’t vote for the President. The electorates do. Which is a fancy way of saying that Congress does. As long as Democrats and Republicans dominate over third party and independent electorates, we will never have a third party candidate.

Supposedly, even if a third party candidate won by a landslide in the popular vote with a record voter turnout, the electorate doesn’t have to consider that candidate as viable and still select only the Republican or Democrat candidate with the highest vote of just those two parties.

The only way we can have a third party candidate win in an election is if a single third party overtook the house or senate. But third parties are only recognized as independent and they end up cozying up to either one party or the the other depending on which ones hold majority or share similar interests. So, even then, it’s so unlikely that’s it’s next to impossible.

Not without a significant overhaul of how our congress has operated in the last 150 years.

sure, interesting points your wrote. I wasn't saying that third party candidates were viable, just that they could siphon off enough votes from one party to hand the election to another. For example, did Ralph Nader throw the election to Bush?

I’d rather our votes go to the person we actually want to represent us rather than go to actively prevent another candidate from winning.

We’re a two-party system pretending to be a multi-party system. This is exactly why the two major parties had become stale and why they’re now going to the extremes. I read that a two-party system is suppose to support a centrist outcome and prevent total polarization but that just seems bullshit to me. We’re seeing that polarization now.

If I don’t completely agree with you, I’m the opposition. That’s just complete and utter bullshit.

It’s disingenuous to allow people to believe their vote matters. It’s almost like a test. You hear all these candidates and if you don’t know how to play the game, you pick a loser. Or you pick someone who’ll take votes away from the possibly more deserving candidate. That just seems very dangerous to me.

To continue voting for the lesser of two evils. Why not end that practice and give that power to the voters?

And if that is too much to ask....

Then why keep lying and saying voting third party isn’t anything other than a scam?

I don't disagree with you Dr.StrangeIove

Mostly venting. I know a lot of dumb college people who take political science and still don’t grasp these things. Maybe not teaching them current events?