• aidan@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    What??

    In Michigan Gary Johnson got 172,136 votes, in Pennsylvania he got 146,715, and in Wisconsin he got 106,674. If all Greens voted Clinton and all Libertarians voted Trump then New Mexico would’ve only been won by Clinton with around 1,000 votes, Colorado would’ve also been nearly Trump. Nevada, New Hampshire, and Minnesota would’ve been won by Trump. Maine might’ve gone majority Trump.

    Third parties hurt Trump more than they help him, because Libertarians would not have voted Clinton.

    • Red_October@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      And how many of them are running now? This isn’t about them, this is about the one third party candidate that actually makes headlines.

      • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        The Green party gets more attention in left-leaning circles because there are people sympathetic to it and there are people who want to blame them for the Democrats losing. It’s not because they’re actually more popular than the Libertarian party, which regularly gets like 3 times as many votes.

        2020: 1,865,917 (LP); 405,034 (GP)
        2016: 4,489,359; 1,457,216
        2012: 1,275,923; 469,627
        2008: 523,713; 161,797 
        2004: 397,265; 119,859
        

        So it’s completely wrong to say that “there aren’t any right-wing third parties making any kind of a meaningful run.” It’s just that your perception of how popular the Libertarian party is compared to the Greens is distorted.

        • Billiam@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          At the same time, the way that the EC favors the GOP causes the spoiler effect of the Green Party to be amplified compared to Libertarians.

          • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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            1 month ago

            How? By the same math as OP, the Libertarian Party splitting the vote cost Trump Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin in 2020. That’s 37 EC votes which would’ve been enough to make the election an exact tie.