This is a binary choice dem or repub any other choice is a vote for the incumbent
Voting 3rd party exercises your right to say you don't like either of the other 2 candidates. I will not argue which candidate it will help, but i think this line of thinking is detrimental to our voting process and wrong to rub in peoples faces.
Of course I don’t wish to argue the efficacy of my poker moves. They are an expression of my free spirit.
You can say whatever you want, but no one is listening. Voter turnout is so low that the signal of voting 3rd-party is completely lost in the noise of passive non-voting. 3rd-party votes might feel good, but pragmatically (and what is voting except a pragmatic attempt to advance your preferred policy), they are useless.
I encourage everyone on this comment chain to read Clay Shirky's "There is no such thing as a protest vote" [0], and really take it seriously, instead of jumping to thought-terminating cliches by angrily denouncing him as a sheep or whatever. He's right.
[0]: https://medium.com/@cshirky/theres-no-such-thing-as-a-protes...
"Voting 3rd party exercises your right to say you don't like either of the other 2 candidates"
I actually voted for a third party, i liked better than the other 2. It was not a protest. I did just read your link and won't denounce him as anything, but I do think telling people who vote for someone they like who is not in the main 2 parties that their vote was a "throw-away" is again not a good thing.
We will have to agree to disagree on this. Although it is interesting in some other countries where there are more than 2 parties that do all compete.
Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin etc the calculation totally changes of course.
> this line of thinking is detrimental to our voting process and wrong to rub in peoples faces.
Our voting framework is detrimental to our voting process. The line of thinking that a 3rd party vote is a vote wasted is simply an assessment of reality.
There are only two realistic candidates for President in a given US election. And no matter the reasoning, a vote for third party is equivalent to a half vote for both major candidates.
If you truly find equally unappealing, then a third party vote is a (very quiet) way to voice that opinion. Otherwise, you are giving a half vote to your least preferred option.
Here in Australia at least I can do that every time and still have my vote go to the lesser evil due to preferences.
0 may not be equal to 1, but it isn't equal to -1 either. It takes TWO people changing their vote from <your favored major candidate> to <third-party candidate> to match the effect of one person changing from <your favored major candidate> to <the opposing major candidate>.