I know we technically have more than two choices, but what would need to change for it to simply be 1) person A, 2) person B, or 3) throwaway vote.
And maybe there are multiple avenues?
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We’d have elected officials that 2/3 of the population doesn’t like. You think we’re divided now…
A 2-round system would already give a bigger chance to third parties.
In the 1st round voters choose between all candidates.
If none of the candidates get over 50% of the vote, then a 2nd round is held.
In the 2nd round voters choose between the 2 main candidates. The one who gets more votes wins.
In this scenario, im 2020, Bernie Sanders could’ve run as independent. Either he or Biden would’ve passed to the 2nd round against Trump. One of them would’ve won. You’d have a third candidate without obliterating the chance of Trump losing.
It’s actually worse than that. Unless you live in a swing state, you don’t have a choice. I live in a solid red state that will be about 65% to 70% Republican in the presidential election. So I could vote for Biden/Harris or for any of the “third party candidates “ and it wouldn’t make any difference.
What we really need to do is scrap the electoral college and counts by state and make it a 100% popular vote. That would require a change in the constitution, and I don’t see that happening in my lifetime.
You have more than 2 choices already and parties in the past have already lost too much support to continue. You don’t see jeffersonionians around anymore nor American Whigs.
There’s a chance, if the republicans lose, the GOP fractures into two camps.
That could genuinely lead to there being three parties.
A candidate with a tremendous amount of wealth, name recognition, and likeability… plus a niche of issues that can form a bandwagon and drive a wedge between the two existing parties, stealing votes from each almost equally.
Flood the primary with votes for the underdog candidate. Thats your best bet. In order for there to be a viable third party the system, as it exists, has to be destroyed. You would hopefully do that via a program of voting for a progressive set of candidates. Failing that, you have to wait for the system to die naturally and overthrow it.
The existing system will not tolerate a third party or willingly change. It has to be forced.
Its possible if the right fails in this next election they could fall apart. That might, conceivably, create two new right wing parties: a moderate and extreme right wing. But there is no way for the common voter to make that happen.
Something like ranked choice world certainly help.
That said, we did have more than two choices. You just have to vote in the primaries.
You have more than 2 choices.
The candidates to the general election are selected through primaries.
If you compare with France 2 round system that most of the time has 10+ candidates, the US system is better because it ensures that both sides of the political spectrum are represented on the general election (while in France there can be even more strategic voting to make sure your side of the spectrum has at least one candidate on the second round)
Change our core voting system away from First Past the Post (FPtP). All FPtP democracies drift to a two party system over time. In FPtP, you are not voting for your candidate of choice, you are voting against the the other candidate.
The good news is FPtP systems gravitate to more moderate parties. Most voters are moderate. As one party moves from center, they lose voters to the other party.
The issue the US has had recently is people are starting to incorporate their pollical party into their identity. That in turn has allowed the party(ies) to become more extreme without losing voters. Now candidates can say stuff like [I’ll be a dictator on day one](https://apnews.com/article/trump-hannity-dictator-authoritarian-presidential-election-f27e7e9d7c13fabbe3ae7dd7f1235c72) or “[I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters](https://www.cnn.com/2016/01/23/politics/donald-trump-shoot-somebody-support/index.html)” and still have a good chance at getting elected.
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