Is voting for a third party candidate worse or better than not voting at all?

Question

Specifically when it comes to November.

normalice · Accepted Answer

It is the same. The time for idealism is the primaries. There are no third parties that don't have enough of an overlap with one of the two major ones that they can't just run in their primary. And, because of that, if that candidate also runs in the main election the only realistic possibility is that they split the vote between themselves and the party they align with the most, causing the party that most opposes their stated goals to win.

This is inherently self destructive. And any idiot who spends 5 minutes running a campaign should be aware of it so, of course, it only makes sense that people who run third party in this way are actually doing it for the sake of that "self" destruction: If you wanted one party to win, just run third party saying the same things as the party you want to lose. With enough funding it's no big deal to get the 30k votes in a handful of swing states needed to ensure the victory of the party you want to win. This is basically what happened to Hillary in 2016 - with Putins financial backing Jill Stein attracted enough votes to give Trump an edge in a handful of swing states. And as a result pretty much the opposite of everything the Green party purports to care about happened for four years.

Of course this only applies at the federal level. In local elections a third party has a much greater chance of winning. State elections depend on the seat and the state. California governor? A third parry has no real chance. Wyoming state representative? A third party could easily win.

shortster · Accepted Answer

Voting is better than not voting. However, voting for someone you don't want because they are in one of the main parties is worse than not voting. Always vote for the candidate you want and not the less bad of the R's or D's.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

if voting for a third party, it doesn't count anyway

northerngal · Accepted Answer

Not voting is worse. Suck it up and make a choice.

mrkdvsn · Answer

Not voting is worse. Always better to vote, as long as it's for a conservative Christian-minded candidate

Anonymous · Answer

How would it be worse?

Anonymous · Answer

I'm anon.

BarryLiverstone · Answer

Yes it’s worse

Is voting for a third party candidate worse or better than not voting at all?

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Is voting for a third party candidate worse or better than not voting at all?

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