The Campaign Process Limit Third Party Success

Although no third-party candidate has ever won a U.S. presidential election, I disagree that a third party candidate has only slightly affected the elections. Third-party candidates rarely win elections, but they can split parties. That can affect the outcome of an election when a third-party candidate is especially strong, or when the race between the two other candidates is especially close. Third-party candidates exert influence by focusing the election on particular issues and taking votes away from major candidates. During the 2000, election, Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader took votes away from Democrat Al Gore, thus contributing to the loss to George Bush. The most successful of the third parties in any one election was

Third parties fail to achieve electoral victories and representation in modern American politics have been because of the structure of the types of the elections, the ballot rules, and the debate rules. Even if the third parties have equal standards, views, resources, etc., lacking in popularity and significance within the government may increase the chance of not being able to represent in politics. “In order to appreciate the reasons for the Electoral College, it is essential to understand its historical context and the problem that the Founding Fathers were trying to solve.” (Kimberling) In the nation, the political parties brought up concerns and questioning of how electing a president with no such political parties would be possible

The Third Party System was a Democratic Party that was not able to maintain the alliance that was formed with the southern and western farmers once slavery became the main problem in America. The Third Party was created after a sectional dispute that was about slavery that led to the collapse of the Second Party System back in the 1850s. The Third Party divided into two with the Democrats in the South being proslavery and the Democrats in the North being antislavery. In 1860 the party selected two different presidents that represented each of the two divisions and they also found themselves having disagreements on slavery. After the death of Webster and Clay, there was a lack of leadership that was having a big impact. The Republicans, on the

Because both the Democratic and Republican parties were equally as strong as each other they tended to focus more on the rivalry between each other and who was in control, so they did not focus on other important issues. Because of this third parties were able to form around specific issues and groups (Goldfield, The American Journey, vol. 2, 454).

Elections shape the scope and size of our government. It’s an event where the people can decide the direction of a locality, a state, and even the federal government. Immigrants and youth who can’t vote are still impacted by the decisions of those being elected. Elections are paramount to our system of governance, however the way campaigns are run, and how funds are raised lack any meaningful oversight. The united states campaign finance system is in need reform, due to increasing deregulation, poor voter participation, and drastic increases third party spending. The root cause of this issue is our deregulated campaign finance system.

Third parties in American politics have had limited influence on a national level due to the winner-take-all nature of elections. While they have had some success in local and Congressional elections, it has been limited, and they have certainly stopped short of reaching the presidency. One significant exception to the marginalization of third parties was the Progressive Party of 1912. Their influence was bolstered by Theodore Roosevelt’s popularity, public disapproval toward Taft, and the mass agreement with policies of the Progressive Party.

This is undeniable due to the fact that for a third party to have a chance at winning an election, they would have to disproportionately sway enough States to win, which in itself is an extremely difficult task for an alternative party. Nonetheless, this would almost certainly result in an election won by a very small margin. The marginal division that arises from a three party system could cause the least favorable party to win by a split vote because of the other two parties. This would thereby create national division that would prevent progress from being made, serving as an issue for the electoral system. In fact, history has shown that third parties can botch an election. An example of this is the 1912 Presidential election, where Theodore Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party split the republican vote by gaining 27% of the vote and allowed Woodrow Wilson of the Democratic Party to win. This election was not the only one of its kind. A similar event took place in the 2000 election between Al Gore and George Bush where Ralph Nader of the Green Party was believed to take a significant amount of votes away from Al Gore, causing his loss. However, these events do not happen frequently because the Electoral College system encourages third party movements to eventually join the two major political parties. If an outer party were to join with a major party, they would have more success getting what they want, but they would have to compromise some of their stances to accommodate the major party. This system inhibits political unions to occur within the government and forces them to transpire within political parties. Therefore, although some contest otherwise, the two party system is more convenient and sufficient than other party systems because it allows for continuity and stability in the government. The Electoral College, subsequently, is necessary

Proponents further dispute that the Electoral College is a chief factor in contributing to the political stability of the nation by promoting a two party system. This is simply true because it is extremely complicated for a new or minor party to win enough popular votes in a sufficient amount of States to have a chance of winning the presidency. The realistic effect of the Electoral College is to practically force third party movements into one of the two major political parties. In this method of integration, third party movements are obliged to compromise their more fanatic ideas in order to stand a fighting chance against the two main parties in elections. Third parties should be considered just as big of a contender in elections as the

beginning of a new political era in which the dominance of the major parties is

Third parties include all of the minor political parties in a country. Currently in America, for example, that includes all the parties that are not the Republican or Democratic party, which are the Green Party, Libertarian Party, Prohibition Party, etc. Although the America’s winner-take-all system and electoral college primary election system prevents third parties in winning general elections and causes them to be limited to the local levels, they still are very important in the country. They serve a variety of functions, such as presenting and emphasizing new ideas to debate and serving as a precaution in case popular discontent. Third parties are either splinter parties, which branch out of

Although America has long been a bipartisan government, it would be more beneficial to move to an open multi-party system to give Americans more choice in its elections, and more political diversity. Third-party running candidates in America are always a possibility, but are majorly overshadowed by the already well established Democratic and Republican party candidates. Many Americans would prefer an alternative to our current system, but are either bullied into conforming to it, or are convinced that third-party is a waste of a vote. One of the main reasons we stick to either Republicans or Democrats is because it is familiar and we oppose change. The two-party system is not the best system for America and could be improved upon greatly..

In American politics the two party system is so dominant that there not much room left for third parties to get votes from the constituents. This is why third parties are often written off in American politics because they do not have power to effect direct change in the political system. Third parties are more of an indirect change. They draw from the more focused constituents who have a specific grievance that neither the larger parties are concerned with changing. The people who vote for third party candidates are more likely to be unhappy with the direction of the major parties or have grievances with the establishment.

The third party candidates do not get the media exposure that the Democrats and Republicans enjoy since the rules of the Commission on Presidential Debates

A measurement that could favor and improve third party’s success rate, without changing the Constitution or abandoning the two-party system, would be fusion voting. Under this system, third parties could cross-endorse leading party candidates and have their votes accumulated. This system has been regulated in New York, where a Conservative Party, Liberal Party and many others are found. Oregon has also approved this system recently. The main advantage of fusion voting is that it would pressure leading party candidates to pursue the additional nomination of third parties and work to board their interests.

27. Legitimize Third parties (Green, Socialist, etc.) to run in all 50 states. In most states, for a party's candidate to win in a primary, he/she must gain a support equivalent to certain percentage of voters in order for the party to proceed to be ballot-qualified in the whole state. For example, in all states, major parties are admitted access to primary elections. Most others, however, do not allow minor parties to run in primary elections that very much decide the outcome. Consequently, minor party candidates in these states can run only in general elections.