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The presence of viable alternatives keeps Americans involved in our democratic process.
A recent Gallup poll found that a record 60 percent of American voters surveyed would like a third major political party to choose at the ballot box. Historically third Parties have at times played a significant role in US policy. During the late 1800s to early 1900s, the Socialists brought focus to the women’s suffrage movement, advocated for child labor laws and, in collaboration with the Populist Party, introduced the 40-hour work week. In addition to forcing the two major parties to adopt various policies, third parties have also provided an “emotional bridge” for voters who are weary of supporting one major party but are not yet ready to vote for the other. George Wallace’s 1968 third-party Presidential campaign drew support from traditional southern Democrats who weren’t emotionally prepared to vote as Republicans. REGISTER GREEN NOW
Third parties can turn major parties out of power
The emotional bridge that a third party provides does more than simply lure voters to the polls; it can also help to turn one of the major parties out of power. Third parties performed this function in 1912, when Theodore Roosevelt’s Progressive Party helped the Democrats wrest the White House from 20 years of unchallenged Republican supremacy. REGISTER GREEN NOW
Fair Voting: No more “lesser of two evils”
Have you ever felt forced to vote for the “lesser of two evils” even though you hated both candidates? Have you ever felt that voting for a Green whose values you share would “spoil” the election by helping elect a right-wing candidate? If so, this is the area of electoral reform that most directly addresses your problem.
Three’s a crowd in our winner-take-all, plurality voting system. When there are more than two candidates, someone can win even though they didn’t get the majority of the votes, only a “plurality” (more than anyone else). For example, in New York City Council primary elections, there are often six or seven candidates, and winners are declared with as little as 25% support.
By discouraging new candidates and parties, plurality voting suppresses new ideas and dissenting opinion. It encourages campaigns built around negative attacks.
The good news is that fixing these problems doesn’t mean embracing some “pie in the sky,” crazy ideas that have never been tested. The US system, far from being the norm, is actually an outlier. Nearly all major, well-established democracies around the world use “fair voting” systems that allow voters to be much better represented than the American system does. There are also a number of American cities that use “fair voting” systems successfully, not to mention many non-political organizations.
Fair voting can refer to a range of voting methods in which “like-minded voters” (more on that later) elect candidates in proportion to their share of the vote. We will focus on those methods that would be easiest and quickest to achieve in the American context.
From: http://www.gp.org/fix_our_broken_system