Independent and Third Party votes should count just as much as Republican and Democratic votes.
In presidential elections almost all of the 50 states and DC use the Winner-Take-All system to select their electors in the Electoral College. Unless an Independent or Third Party candidate gets a minimum of 50% of the presidential vote in a state they will get 0% of the Electoral College votes for that state. And that’s not right.
An excellent example of how unfair this is to Independent and Third Party voters is the 1992 presidential election where Independent candidate H. Ross Perot got 19% of the national popular vote but 0% of the Electoral College votes because he couldn’t get at least 50% of the vote in any one state.
As a result of the Winner-Take-All system anyone who votes for a presidential candidate that isn’t from one of the two major political parties is throwing away their vote unless their candidate can get at least 50% of the presidential vote in their state.
With more people registering as Independents or for Third Parties more voters in presidential elections will have to choose from these three bad choices when they vote for president. And that’s not good for our democracy.
1. If you don’t like either major political party candidate you can vote for a Third Party candidate that you like better but know that if they can’t get at least 50% of the vote in your state your vote effectively doesn’t count at all.
2. You can vote for the “lessor of two evils” of one the two major political party candidates even if you don’t really want either to be president. But at least this way your vote will count and have some effect on which candidate wins the election.
3. You don’t vote for any presidential candidate. This way you don’t have to vote for someone you don’t really want to win but at the cost of having your voice not heard at election time. In our democracy all U.S. citizens should vote and have their voice heard even if their preferred candidate doesn’t win.
If a state adopts Ranked Choice Voting Independent and Third Party voters can vote for a Third Party candidate they really want but not throw away their vote even if their candidate gets less than 50% of the presidential vote in their state.
Let’s say there are three candidates for president, a Republican, a Democrat and an Independent. With Ranked Choice Voting when you vote you rank the candidates in order of your preference. If you’re an independent you can rank the Independent candidate as your #1 choice, because that’s who you really want to win. Then for your second choice you can choose one of the two major party candidates that you consider the “lessor of two evils”.
This way you really can have your cake and eat it too. Your true voice will be heard in your first choice for president, because that’s who you really want to win. But if they don’t win your vote will still count because you will have helped the “lessor of two evils” to win and your vote will have influenced who won the election even if they were not your first choice.
All U.S. Citizens Should Vote. 