Poll: would you have voted third-party if we had a better electoral system?

I suppose I could have voted for the White Nationalist Party if we had any real chance.

Since we don't have much a chance of winning (not enough campaign contributions), I simply vote Republican instead, it's just as good.

This would require extensive campaign finance reform; getting most of the money out of the process, and it's something the 2 major parties absolutely won't support in any meaningful way. Scrapping the electoral college could help a bit. The third party would then be viewed as having x% of the vote, rather than just a few or no votes from the electoral college. Eliminating gerrymandering for US congressional districts would help third parties a bit more. Right now, most boundaries are drawn to favor one of the major parties or the other. If races were more open, so that incumbents were not so favored by demographics, third parties could get a foothold in the House at least. BTW, I think you could have gotten better answers if you'd defined your terms IRV STV and PR! They're not commonly known!

Absolutely, I think most of us are fed up enough to try anything at this point. The problem is until like 10 days before election I couldn't name any of the "other" candidates. Now I'm not a total mouth-breather, I try and keep up, but until these politicians can get a 30 second spot on MTV or something they don't have a chance. Nothing to do with what they say it's just we don't know they exist. Sat this vote out... Made history 4 years ago voted for the brother, than I saw how much he was doing to help all those he supposedly cared about in the hood, And thought What's the point in having a black president if he does less for black people than a white one. Sh*t Obama stood there proud and talked about how easy it was to kill brown people with these killer drones... That was when I had enough of the brother, The mans killed more people of color than high blood pressure.

I think there are several questions involved here.

1. The election is between two choices. Third parties (as is always the case in living memory) have no chance of being elected, so a vote for a third party candidate is essentially giving up one's right to take part in the selection of the two folks who are electable.

2. A valid third party candidate in the election usually donates the election to the candidate most unlike the third party candidate, since this candidate will take votes away from the most similar candidate ("He would have been my choice, but he's a bit too conservative for me, so I voted for Mel Mashoogah.").

3. Election of the president chooses also which political party controls the Office of the President, which is a very large constellation of offices, with an enormous amount of power, regardless of who is in the oval office. I cannot even begin to imagine a person being so stupid that they truly do not care whether this office is in the hands of Republicans or Democrats. Folks voting for a third party candidate almost always regret their foolish choice when the consequences become obvious (Think Raph Nader).

4. Single issue politics is almost always foolish. You don't make good choices if the only thing you care about is abortion or green or gun control or you name it.

Raph Nader, a left-leaning candidate, stole votes from the Democrat candidate, and possibly swung the election to Bush. It was very close, as you will remember. If you are sitting there now say, "That's in the past. I only care about the election of 2012," you are really so very much not helping.

I voted third party for Gary Johnson, but also considered jill stein. Here is why:

Since one vote doesnt make a difference (bad attitude, but still true), a vote for romney or obama was not going to tip the scale on way or the other. I wanted my vote to count a show what I really wanted out of a candidate. I mailed in my vote for the Ohio ballot. The two majory parties still want weed to be criminalized, they are big business parties, and they are war parties. I don't like that, neither did the 2 3rd party candidates. If either party needs and extra 1% of the votes, then they will have to adjust their platforms to appeal to 3rd party voters like myself. I want them to change to earn my vote. I dont want to change to give them my vote for nothing.

The electoral college made sense in the countries infant stage when letters were still sent by the highly efficient pony express haha. Popular vote was not practical then. Now, a popular vote is possible and needed in this country. However, it will not change, so presidential elections must only require campaign money in the swing states. It completely ignores the majority of Americans and allows for the easier corruption in the campaign process.

Absolutely. Or third or fourth or fifth or ....

ANYTHING but the established party of democratic republicans (which is actually a throwback to the 18th century days of John Q Adams).

We really have only one party in the U.S.A. One party, two labels to keep the unaware, the misled, and the easily led in line.

The U.S.A. is a republic. We vote for those who are supposed to *represent* us, but that happens only when it will secure a vote.

The problem is not really the politicians, although they have gone to great lengths to enable and further their system of flappers and kickbacks, it is the system.

We would be much better off if we could remove the politicians from their offices and eliminate the office, but humans are not ready to govern themselves so we are stuck with our elected royalty.

We *do* need to change the names though.

The ultra-rich politicians have no care for how their constituents live. The politicos think that $30,000/year is "rich" yet some of them are worth that much each DAY.

Like the French royalty of the 18th century, the rich politicians desire only their own comfort.

"What? The people have no bread to eat? then let them eat cake!"

The politicians have come to believe that they are our masters rather than our servants.

They are out of control.

It's time to vote ALL of them out of office.

We need to have a 'REMOVE INCUMBENT' option on the ballot.

I voted 3rd party in the past two presidential elections, and in the past three state wide elections. I will not be a sheep and vote for the idiots the two major parties force on us. Certainly America has better to offer than Obama or Romney, or Bush and Gore, or...the list goes on and on.

Damn...I probably just made the list again.

If there was no electoral college system and votes actually mattered, it would be illegal.

As for the last election for an example, the only two people that were most likely to win were Obama and Romney, so you had to side with one and voted for him.

- Most people voted for one of these two candidates, while some probably wanted someone else and I did vote for one of the two candidates which was Romney.

No.

Third parties marginalized themselves by representing such small groups and limited platforms rather then the Country as a whole and a comprehensive platform.

Would never vote for a third party as it stands now. Not because of the organization of the electoral system but because of the organization of the third parties.

I probably would have voted Green, although I can't say for sure, since I did not compare the Green and Socialist platform.

Yes. Libertarian.

But in actual practice, under the 2-Party system one feels forced to vote Republican, because that's the only way to reduce the infestation by Communists.....wait, I meant to say Democrats.