(02-15-2021, 09:31 PM)Sneakers Wrote:

(02-15-2021, 08:29 PM)mikesez Wrote: Let people vote for all the candidates they like and we'll end up with as many parties as we want... And old useless parties will die.

While I'd like to see an end to the traditional two party system, I'm not comfortable with the possibility of a President elected with 20% of the vote.

It wouldn't be like that.

With approval voting, you could have 6 candidates, one gets 60% approval, one gets 50%, another gets 40%, etc., Because people are voting for everyone they like. 

With ranked choice voting, it's similar.  A candidate might get 20% of the first choice votes but then as candidates are eliminated, the second and third and fourth choice votes add up to much more than 20%.  Instant runoff voting is the simplest form of ranked choice.
But approval voting is best.

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(02-15-2021, 09:41 PM)TheO-LineMatters Wrote:

(02-15-2021, 07:03 PM)The Drifter Wrote: But will it get off the ground??????

Support for brand-new, viable third party hits all-time high

The percentage of Americans who are so dissatisfied with two-party politics that they think a new, viable party is a good idea has risen to a record high 62%, according to a Gallup poll.

https://www.wnd.com/2021/02/support-bran...q_g802X6H8

The problem is that people complain about the two party system every election, but when it comes right down to it, those same people continue to vote Democrat or Republican. They think their vote won't matter if they vote for a small 3rd party that has no chance to win. They don't see that the more support a 3rd party gets in each election, the more relevant they become and the faster they become viable. It's not gonna happen overnight. It might take decades, but it will never happen if people who complain don't follow through.

Third parties can't be viable at the presidential level because states are winner take all in the electoral college.

and if states start splitting their electoral vote, and third party candidates start earning electoral votes? What happens then? No one gets a majority of electoral votes. So the house of representatives decides.  Again, by state, winner take all, but one vote each.  Most likely one of the three candidates would already have a majority when you count this way, and there would be little room for deal making.  Unless there was already a third party with a lot of representation in the house, it would still be a two party system, and yes, the people who voted third party would be non-participants.

But if you do approval voting, and everyone is free to vote for all the candidates they like both for Congress and for president, you would see lots of new coalitions develop in both elections.

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