Strategic third-party voting and the electoral college (Ron Paul, voters, president)
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The electoral college gives strategic voters in certain states a unique option that would not be available in a national vote. In the electoral college, every vote a candidate gets above the recall margin (usually .2% in most states) over the next candidate is irrelevant. In a pure two-person race, once Candidate A gets 50.02% of the vote, every vote above that is wasted, in the sense that it is irrelevant to the ultimate outcome of the race.
So, if you live in a state where one candidate is certain to win, and you vote for one of the two major candidates, your presidential vote is entirely irrelevant. It has no chance of making any difference in the final outcome, which is already predetermined.
Instead, if you are a strategic voter, one option is to vote third-party, thus driving up the third-party percentage of the vote, and marginally increasing their influence, along with the outside chance that a third party candidate might one day be invited to the presidential debates again.
That way, even if you are party-loyal, you can still cast a third-party ballot and not "feel bad" about it, since your vote was already irrelevant.
Has anyone considered this type of strategic voting?
The electoral college gives strategic voters in certain states a unique option that would not be available in a national vote. In the electoral college, every vote a candidate gets above the recall margin (usually .2% in most states) over the next candidate is irrelevant. In a pure two-person race, once Candidate A gets 50.02% of the vote, every vote above that is wasted, in the sense that it is irrelevant to the ultimate outcome of the race.
So, if you live in a state where one candidate is certain to win, and you vote for one of the two major candidates, your presidential vote is entirely irrelevant. It has no chance of making any difference in the final outcome, which is already predetermined.
Instead, if you are a strategic voter, one option is to vote third-party, thus driving up the third-party percentage of the vote, and marginally increasing their influence, along with the outside chance that a third party candidate might one day be invited to the presidential debates again.
That way, even if you are party-loyal, you can still cast a third-party ballot and not "feel bad" about it, since your vote was already irrelevant.
Has anyone considered this type of strategic voting?
That's true. I, for one, am considering this option. Waiting to see how close the election might be in my state first. If it appears to be "neck-and-neck", then I might be forced to vote for Dem/Rep, instead of my 1st choice...
The electoral college gives strategic voters in certain states a unique option that would not be available in a national vote. In the electoral college, every vote a candidate gets above the recall margin (usually .2% in most states) over the next candidate is irrelevant. In a pure two-person race, once Candidate A gets 50.02% of the vote, every vote above that is wasted, in the sense that it is irrelevant to the ultimate outcome of the race.
So, if you live in a state where one candidate is certain to win, and you vote for one of the two major candidates, your presidential vote is entirely irrelevant. It has no chance of making any difference in the final outcome, which is already predetermined.
Instead, if you are a strategic voter, one option is to vote third-party, thus driving up the third-party percentage of the vote, and marginally increasing their influence, along with the outside chance that a third party candidate might one day be invited to the presidential debates again.
That way, even if you are party-loyal, you can still cast a third-party ballot and not "feel bad" about it, since your vote was already irrelevant.
Has anyone considered this type of strategic voting?
I have. In fact I try to get my mind around this everyday in attempts to find ways of being more effective.
However in the portion I bolded, you state that where the outcome is certain, then vote third party. Well the only reason this outcome is certain in some states is because there is a clear majority and if you part of that majority then voting against it would defeat the purpose. However if you were the minority in such a state, then yes, I would agree.
The electoral college gives strategic voters in certain states a unique option that would not be available in a national vote. In the electoral college, every vote a candidate gets above the recall margin (usually .2% in most states) over the next candidate is irrelevant. In a pure two-person race, once Candidate A gets 50.02% of the vote, every vote above that is wasted, in the sense that it is irrelevant to the ultimate outcome of the race.
So, if you live in a state where one candidate is certain to win, and you vote for one of the two major candidates, your presidential vote is entirely irrelevant. It has no chance of making any difference in the final outcome, which is already predetermined.
Instead, if you are a strategic voter, one option is to vote third-party, thus driving up the third-party percentage of the vote, and marginally increasing their influence, along with the outside chance that a third party candidate might one day be invited to the presidential debates again.
That way, even if you are party-loyal, you can still cast a third-party ballot and not "feel bad" about it, since your vote was already irrelevant.
Has anyone considered this type of strategic voting?
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