This works because almost all the US uses first-past-the-post elections for the Presidential general election. So you get outcomes like this:


Scenario 1:

Biden: 10 votes

Trump: 9 votes

Kennedy/Stein/West: 0 votes

Biden wins the state


Scenario 2:

Biden: 9 votes

Trump: 9 votes

Kennedy/Stein/West: 1 vote

Tied vote, decided by game of chance/lawsuit


Scenario 3:

Biden: 8 votes

Trump: 9 votes

Kennedy/Stein/West: 2 votes

Trump wins the state


This is why you see huge financial support from Republican billionaires for third party candidates who have no chance of winning.

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[–] [S] 15 points 2 years ago* (3 children)

They don't need that. All they need is to take more votes from Biden than they do from Trump. And the the polling makes it very clear that the 3rd party candidates as a group do exactly that. The benefit is something around a 3 percentage point advantage for Trump with the 3rd party candidates on the ballot vs not.

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  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Yeah idk, I haven't heard any Dems say they're going to break from Biden for someone like RFK, the dude is an anti science nut job and at least my circles see right through it. I have heard trumpists say they'd consider him if trump ended up in jail or whatever though. 🤷

    Hopefully this strategy backfires spectacularly.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Honestly, the bigger issue for dems has always been low enthusiasm leading to a lot of voters just refusing to vote.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    It's almost as if more people need to vote in the primaries

    Yeah it's more difficult with an incumbent because the Smarter Than You DNC decides a primary is bad, but if we actually voted in numbers then instead of just allowing the old people who actually vote in primaries to decide who is the one running, we'd actually have a candidate people can be excited for.

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  • [–] [S] 9 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    So far the polls don't show that kind of backfire. Would take a bunch more people hearing about why he's actually running to create it.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago

    Republicans have done this for decades to great success. Usually they'll push a wedge-driving issue with online operatives sometimes posing as grandstanding leftists who will vote 3rd party, independent, etc.

    It rarely works for Dems, but Libertarians did screw over Trump to some extent last election thanks to Jojo

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