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There are times Jeffrey when third party or the available of third-party candidates brings voters to the polls whereas they wouldn’t have. Classic example is 2016, 6% voted third party that year which included 12% of independents. Which is not surprising when 25% of all Americans disliked both major party candidates and didn’t want neither one to become the next president which included 54% of independents.
Both Trump and Clinton set the record for the lowest favorable ratings in our history or since Gallup and Pew Research began keeping track of these things. Trump 36% favorable, Clinton 38% favorable. Unfavorable was Clinton at 56% and Trump at 60% Trump and Clinton are the only two presidential candidates to have a favorable rating of below 40% and an unfavorable rating of above 50%. Barry Goldwater in 1964 held the record for the lowest favorable at 43% and the highest unfavorable at 47% prior to 2016. Now Barry can rest in peace knowing there were two candidates much more disliked by all Americans than him.
CNN asked those who voted third party who they’d would have voted for if only Trump and Clinton were on the ballot, no other candidates. 19% answered Trump, 16% Clinton and a whopping 65% said they’d wouldn’t have voted. Having third party choices did increase voter turnout if only to vote against both major party candidates.
You can see the third-party vote actually helped Clinton in 2016. It’s an old wife’s tale about third party vote always helping the GOP. Usually the Libertarian candidate is the highest vote getter outside of the two major parties and they draw conservatives’ voters away from Republican candidates. Another more recent example, without the Libertarian candidate, Hazel drawing 2,3% of the vote in Nov 2020, Perdue would have achieved his 50% plus one vote. He received 49.7% to Ossoff’s 47.9%. Thanks to third party candidates the Democrats control the senate today.
Bottom line is history shows third party in most instances takes votes away from the GOP and that the high voter turnout always benefiting the Democrats is also a myth, another old wives’ tale most have bought into without doing any research.
It's high past time that we start electing Americans to congress and the presidency who put America first instead of their political party. For way too long we have been electing Republicans and Democrats who happen to be Americans instead of Americans who happen to be Republicans and Democrats.
