#please do not vote 3rd party in this election

[sapphoslibrary]

the amount of gen z “leftists” who lack even basic education on the american political system is genuinely astounding and terrifying

[gotta-bail-my-quails]

PENNSYLVANIA PULL THROUGH PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE IM GONNA FUCKING CRY

[bioswear]

Idk hot take for a Saturday morning, but maybe people shouldn’t be SO quick to switch to a mentality of: “well I’m not voting at all” about American politics in regards to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict/genocide just bc America has had its dick in those affairs LONG BEFORE fucking Biden Presidecy and people are seemingly just NOW feeling publically vocally outraged about it bc it’s in the forefront news (as you should be), but maybe also let’s use our fucking brains for a moment if you are American:

we should, and can easily, also still focus on that which is in our own backyard, if you don’t vote fucking blue, because green/third parties are not actually viable in the deeply established two party system we have had for CENTURIES, we get fucking DeSantis or some other horrible Fascist Republican and then America is going to have its own genocide against LGBTQ+ people, fascism goes up, continued attacks against drag/immigrants/etc.

You also know damn well that any Republican, If one were president, would be doing the same fucking thing of providing aid to Israel, so I guess personally I’m just confused as to why everyone is surprised biden is doing the same.

You can and should support a free Palestine, and hold contempt for Israel and condemn their actions, AND also know that voting blue is Americas literal only chancE RIGHT CURRENTLY NOW this upcoming year, to remain somewhat of a democracy instead of a ChristoFascist regime, especially with Biden being one of the ONLY blue candidates like�� our hands are TIED

Like YEAH it’s gonna fucking suck to vote for Biden but like you also gotta fucking Buck up sometimes and do things you don’t particularly WANT to do. It’s called duality and compromising in life and sometimes it’s fucking unavoidable.

But idk what the fuck do I know 🤪 I’m just a girl who thinks maybe you shouldn’t just fucking give up one of your only recognized rights in America just because some actions you can’t control from a crusty old moderate blue white man in a country whose affairs are more complicated than your messiest situationship is upsetting (rightfully so, I might add) you

[feddy-34]

THANK YOU.

@murphydjones you have been literally the only person i have seen on this website point this out. if you do not vote for candidates in primaries they will not count you among their voter base. and so they will not try to get your vote by passing policies you agree with. if you don't support a candidate why would they put effort into tailoring their efforts towards what you want? this is basic politics.

i'm not saying you have to vote for biden in the primaries. you can do whatever the fuck you want. but i would like you to consider 2 things:

how will biden and his team view this? do you think his policies will become more oriented towards helping palestine or less?

many of the 3rd party candidates suck for various reasons beyond the fact that they will never get elected. do you really want to support pro-russian politicians?

“You have to finish the problem”

is what former president Donald Trump said when asked about Israel's current offensive in Gaza.

this is for all the so-called "leftists" who keep burying their head in the sand and claiming that they are somehow unable to vote for biden because of his policies towards israel.

this is your alternative.

are these good options? no. welcome to elections. you may choose between ceasefires and brokered deals or gaza being flattened to the ground. good luck.

[fairuzfan]

I never claimed Biden's policies never hurt anyone, but it is unfair to blame Biden for Covid when Covid began under the Trump administration and it was Trump's actions that led to its severity and damage. Biden at least attempted to mitigate Covid during the first year of his administration, but by then the damage was already extensive and the politicized culture around it made it impossible for Americans to cooperate and regulations to have any real affect. But blaming Biden for Covid is like blaming Hoover for the Great Depression.

Don't get me wrong, I hate Biden too. But no matter how awful our 2024 presidential choices are, they are our only possible choices for president. Our voting systems are messed up. 3rd party votes only work against us and lots of people also just opt out of voting, which is about as equally affective. The electoral college was founded on literal racism and slavery and is still imposed to this day. But that's the system we have to work with. It's rigged. It's awful. I KNOW.

And like I said voting is not the end all of political action, and reading some of these comments, I can understand your anger. For most elections, yes, a vote IS an endorsement and support for a politician. But presidential elections just don't work that same way. When you vote 3rd party, you might as well just handed over your right to vote to your representative. And I guarantee you your representative is either going to vote for Trump or Biden.

The presidential election is NOT the only election on the ballot. And all other elections in the US make it possible for 3rd party candidates to win. I will vote 3rd party wherever possible locally, and I encourage you to do so too.

Still, reading through all these comments, I have yet to hear an actual solution to this problem that is achievable by November. Our choices are Biden or Trump. That's it. I hate it too, but if you have any better, feasible ideas, please let me hear it.

Except it is an endorsement. Biden literally thinks "they'll get over it" (it being the genocide of palestinians) by the time election comes. He thinks that we will vote for him anyways so he'll do whatever he wants. That's literally an endorsement. The reason the Vote Uncommitted campaign is gaining traction is to threaten Biden into doing something. If he doesn't feel threatened, then he assumes we are going to vote for him no matter what. So that means it's an endorsement.

If Biden doesn't listen to us, that's on him for losing the election. Not on the people who want him to do something else. And I don't want trump to win. I don't. But I will never vote for a person who so brazenly killed my friends and family, lied to my face, and was so unbelievably arrogant in that he thinks he can do whatever the fuck he wants. Feel free to vote for Biden. Just don't say it's for anyone else.

[exquisite-peculiarity]

Ok USA! We are voting this year, aren't we??

I'm also asking what people who can't vote in the US election would do, if they could.

The first 'US' options are for us residents who are able to vote.

The 'US Can't Vote' options for any resident of a US territory who can't vote for any legal reason- age, legal status, a territory that isn't allowed to vote, etc.

The 'Non US' section is for all non-United States tumblr users

Please share for sample size

[iizzeee]

Guys, I am begging you. Please please please please please PLEASE do NOT vote 3rd party, or not vote at all.

I get it. I really do. Biden’s handling of Israel has been, not gonna mince words, dogshit. Abominable. Unspeakably bad.

But we cannot afford to protest like this.

We don’t need Biden as president. We do need to keep Trump out of office. And to those who respond “well, I don’t want just the lesser of two evils,” please, for the love of god, grow the fuck up.

For one, why wouldn’t you want the lesser of two evils. It is, by definition, LESS EVIL.

“Why can’t we just have no evil, why isn’t that an option.” I really wish it was. Just as much as you. But it’s not. These are our cards, and we have to play our hand to the best of our ability.

Which brings us to two.

Trump is more evil. Like, so much more evil. We’re comparing apples and oranges here guys.

I understand that a lot of you might doubt that. The largest demographic of people advocating for third party or non-votes are in the 18-26 range. New voters, with one or no elections under their belt.

So they don’t remember.

Most of us (I myself fall under this age range) don’t remember 2016. The election, that is. They don’t remember how so many people protested Hillary vs Trump by going 3rd party or writing in joke votes, because they saw the two as equally bad. And Trump won.

Half of us don’t remember the Trump presidency. We’ve heard he was a weird, bad, bigoted president, but don’t fully grasp the scope of how bad.

So off the top of my head, here are some highlights of real things Donald Trump did while he held office.

- threw toilet paper at hurricane victims like he was trying to shoot a 3-pointer

- fired the man investigating him for election fraud

- called African countries “shitholes”

- appointed members of the Supreme Court who would go on to overturn roe v wade

- stole classified documents from the white house to hide at his resort

- tried to instate a Muslim Ban

- incited a insurrection to try and keep himself in office, and maybe hang his VP if there was time

- looked directly at an eclipse. Like no glasses, full on.

- fueled covid conspiracies. Also told people to “drink bleach” to fight the virus

- withdrew us from the Paris Climate Accord

- cofefe. Remember that? What a fun, normal thing for the president to tweet at 2am.

- employed literal white supremacists

- called Nazi’s “very fine people”

- got endorsed by the KKK, and refused to condemn David Duke

And that’s just what I can remember right now.

So if you’re angry at Biden about Palestine, please please please do not think for a fucking second Trump would be better. He would almost certainly actively be worse. He would give Netanyahu the green light. If you think Biden has used a loose leash, at least it’s some kind of leash. Trump would be all in. Full chips, flying to the Middle East to send in the bombs himself.

If you’re still hesitant, consider this last plea.

Things are bad. These shouldn’t be the only two choice we have, but they are. You can’t look at the menu, which is offering either bland soup someone spit in or actual rat poison and go “could I have some steak”.

You can order the soup and live to write a one-star review on Yelp, maybe call health inspections on the restaurant or contact the owners and say “you guys know your menu has only two options and they’re both dogshit. If you don’t add more, you’ll be unemployed soon.”

Or you can order rat poison and die.

If we elect Donald Trump in the fall, we will be eating rat poison. He has repeatedly said himself to be in favor of a dictatorship. He quotes Hitler. If he is put in office, the change we all want and so critically need will not be fucking POSSIBLE. Because with Biden, it’ll be hard, and tedious, and long, and exhausting, but at least it will be goddamn possible.

So, come November, please don’t order the rat poison.

Please just eat your shitty ass soup so we can live to get really angry about it.

Please.

[saltwaffle]

i would bet my last penny that within the next 72 hours, word is going to break about something terrible that Harris has allegedly done in the past. maybe political, maybe personal. and i would bet my second to last penny that it will be something unfavorable to the american leftists.

we already saw it happen before with her positions on criminal justice when she worked as a prosecutor, which were brought up a lot when she ran for VP in 2020. chances are it will come up again.

but no matter what it is, think critically about who wants you to not vote democrat.

whether you like it or not, the U.S. election is happening. no amount of wishful thinking will replace the two-party system with a different, better one. (no, not even voting 3rd party — please look at the current polls and tell me with a straight face that 15%, even a generous 20% is a winning majority.) in short, they’re gonna do everything within their power to manipulate folks who are “on the fence” about candidates or even voting in general, and that includes digging up dirt that may or may not even be true.

check your facts. think about who would want to weaken the progressive vote. also, remember your favorite leftists that convinced you not to vote in 2016? they were russian psyops.

[beardedinfluencerdestiny]

Please read the whole thing!!!!

Let's be very clear we need to stop blaming 3rd party, indigenous and more groups. They didnt have much affect on the votes with 3rd parties accounting for 0.04%. To start off, These are why Kamala wasnt electes

1. The democratic party were very problematic aiding in a war and genocide.

2. Kamala is a woman and biracial

3. importantly 87 million didn't vote most of which were in the democratic party as well as trump supporter actively having a reason to vote after they felt "wronged". As well as indigenous and brown people feeling betrayed for what the administration have done but not wanting to vote for Trump and i understand that america is basically a 2 party country but it still had a big impact. Trump didn't even have much of an increase but Kamala had a significant decrease.

4. Kamala didnt explain her policies enough to people instead driving of a fear of trump

5.However the main problem is the rise in extremism in the West that allowed trump into presidency and created a cult like facist regime,which will most likely continue.

Back to the people who chose not to vote: it was because they either did not care, didnt have a driving motivation to vote or felt failed democratic party's actions because they preached for equality but when it came to support indigenous communities, kamala being a cop or the explotation of the environment they failed severly. Or people where in a comfortable position of priveledge which is the main problem.

Moral we need to stop the conviction against 3rd parties and smaller indigenous communities

So how do we change this:

4 year plan: disclaimer i am british so if you have any advice send it on the plan. And this is rushed so i will put a full plan in detail out later but it will take a while

We start by promoting 3rd parties in our communities.We start with smaller sections of communities. Vote 3rd party or democratic party in smaller sections.

We focus on promoting the youth through education and tiktok to vote and why it is resourceful in change.

We send petions and protest to elected official or chosen officials on manditory things we need.

If you dont want to get pregnant get the implant now.

If you need medicare try by all means to move out of the country or to a blue state.

Disabled, poc or immigrants move to blue states. Your more likely to get help.

We need to have community discussion to start funds or community charities.

Promote to the youth. Socail media is powerful.

Make an organised voting system ensuring palestinian supporters, congo and sudan supporters to put stress on democrats whilst advocating for their vote in a 2 party system.

Simultaneosly promote 3rd parties as we start to over 8-12 years put them up as viable candidates BUT explain that it isnt vaible for 2026.

Read the democratic plan and explain it because that was their biggesf failure and explain the harmful rhetoric in far right administrations, that will be easy over 4 years. We need to prevent the youth from extremism.

I will edit and go into more detail adding an 8-12 year plan to keep a government that is beneficial for us and the world as a whole but, if you cant tell i have been rushjng

[violetwolfraven]

Can everyone trying to point fingers at the 3rd party voters or the people who didn’t vote or whatever *insert minority here* who voted wrong please shut the fuck up?

Assigning blame is not important. That is not what matters right now. That is a waste of time. Harris lost the election. It happened. We’re heading into another four years with a rapist for a president and honestly? I don’t think any amount of appealing or asking for a recount is going to change it. We’re headed into another Trump presidency. What matters is being prepared.

Are you checking in on your queer and trans friends? Have you made sure your friends who live in cities where there are likely to be riots or racist vigilante behavior are safe? Are you checking in on the women in your life? Do you know where to get contraception? Have you checked on your Muslim friends? Do you know your neighbors? Are they okay? Is there anyone in your life who struggles with addiction and might have fallen off the wagon because of this?

Do you know who your local mutual aid groups are? Do you know what environmental advocacy groups are in your area or what they’re currently working on? Who in your community is most likely to get hurt in the next few months? Who is most likely to help them? Is there anything you can do to help? Can you donate money? Resources? Time?

I’m sorry. I’m being a little harsh here. I know assigning blame is a coping strategy. But it’s not useful for anything beyond self-soothing and I’m so fucking tired of watching white liberals on this website act like we’re on a sinking ship and the only thing we can do now is point fingers until we all drown. We aren’t drowning. Not yet and not in the future if we put in the effort to build as many lifeboats as we can now. Wallowing in hopelessness doesn’t accomplish anything? Neither does wallowing in anger.

I appreciate that you are scared. I’m scared too. Our rights and our loved ones’ rights are about to be under attack. But I choose to channel my fear into as much action as I can. We have 2 months to make the most of, and then a limitless future to keep working under worse conditions. I for one choose not to waste time trying to decide whose fault it is that things are about to get worse.

[mtg-talk]

It’s Election Day here in the United States, and there’s several hours left of the polls being open. If you can vote, please go vote! I already voted for Harris, and I would encourage everyone to do so. She’s not perfect, nowhere near perfect. But if Trump, Vance, Elon Musk and Project 2025 get anywhere near our government, that’s truly going to be the end.

And remember, a vote for 3rd party is a vote for Trump.

Stay safe, everyone.

[sapphism-and-nihilism]

Political PSA: Please Vote

Hey y'all, if you're a US citizen+are of legal age to do so: Please vote tomorrow-and please don't throw your vote/vote 3rd party because the numbers are not backing more than the two horses we've gotten stuck with in this current race-and I know, I get it, she is not the best candidate, but she is literally all we've got right now; IDK if any of you remember what it was like in 2016 during the first Trump presidency, But I, as a queer, non-white woman constantly terrified of being deported-or worse-Sure Fucking Do-and the fucker's promised to make things 1000 times worse should he win, too-not to scare any of y'all, but, this election is literally life and death for marginalized folks like us-we can live through a Kamala presidency-we can't live through a Trump one-many of us didn't during the first one-many many more won't during this one, I know it's a harsh reality to swallow, but the truth of the matter is that the Right is not pulling their punches this time around, their end-goal is in fact to wipe us out-and to create a dictatorship under Trump's ruling should he win-so however you can get there; by car, by uber, by bike, by foot, by ride-share, by public transit-please, get to your nearest polling place, and take part in preventing a political disaster the likes of which we've only gotten a small taste of once before

-✌️

[dosesofcommonsense]

Hey man! Before you delete this ask because I call myself a leftist, I want you to read over this ask. I genuinely have no ill intent towards you, I just want to know how you would explain something. If you can give me a solid answer, you'd have "owned this lib". I legitimately want to give you the chance to speak.

Recently, (based on your posts, what I assume to be) your party made a move to kill a non-partisan government funding bill, at the will of Elon Musk. For this, the party risked governmental shut-down so they could make their changes to the bill. This is not where my question lies.

Among the cuts made in the bill, the party cut 120 billion dollars in pediatric cancer research. I am simply asking if MAGA and Republican party supporters can justify this.

Can you please explain why your party took away (possibly vital) cancer research for children?

I got asked this and attempted to reply privately in chat, but I was not able to reply in chat. So, everyone gets to see the ask and response.

Liberal voters used to be seen as voters willing to consider all options. That’s changed over the years. I’m not interested in “owning a lib”. I like discourse and civil posts….or mostly civil posts. I’m not perfect. I am passionate about my cause and certain topics.

I’m not necessarily in a specific political party. I’m a constitutional conservative. Currently, I align with MAGA, which is a nationalistic and populist movement housed under the Republican Party. Trump wisely hunkered under that umbrella instead of further dividing the voters and creating another party. RFKjr tried that in opposition to Jill Stein’s Libertarian group. While he surpassed her numbers as the official 3rd party (impressive), he couldn’t surpass Trump under the Republican canopy. When RFKjr joined Trump, the Unity Ticket surpassed the Democrats/Democrat Socialists and Biden’s illegal voting machine. The election and voting base was too big for the DNC to rig.

I’m not a fan of the bill that passed. Read my posts and you’ll find I want much shorter bills with much less spending in them. I like the bill that passed in comparison to the original, but I want even shorter bills with even more transparency than Elon promoted and successfully utilized on X.

**Elon spiked attention. The people who voted for Trump/Vance and the Unity Ticket spoke and got a response. Elon helped kill the bill, but he didn’t do it by himself.

**Non-Partisan? Ha! That bill was fat with Elitism.

I’ll answer your question after I ask two.

1. Are you willing to pay $120B in cancer research AND pay all the other money in that bill?

2. If you dig into my posts, you’ll see cancer treatments outside of Big Medicine and Big Pharma have been discovered to great effects (curing cancer). The methods already exist. What else is there to research?

——

Inside our medical community, have they touted these findings? No. They silence them and push cancer research and chemo. Chemo isn’t a cure. It’s the Trail of Tears assault on the human body. Chemo kills everything but isn’t guaranteed to kill the cancer. Strange, huh?

At which point was this cancer research designated? The research into developing more cancer, the management of the cancer, the “treatment” against the cancer, the treatment of the secondary and tertiary developments, or shutting down the findings outside of Big Pharma about eradicating cancer?

Have you listened to the drug commercials? 90% of drugs mention a cancer warning. “Treat your eczema but run the risk of severe bleeding, tuberculosis, cancer and 15 other things.” Those commercials don’t say cure. They say treat your issue. A patient cured is money lost. A patient cured is leverage lost. A kid cured is the most offensive thing to Big Pharma because child patients have the greatest potential to be in the healthcare system the longest. Hook them early on one “doctor prescribed medicine” and pass them along to more and more. There’s a pill for this and a pill for that, and a new pill for the adverse reactions of pills 1 and 2. Maybe that sounds harsh to you, but it’s true. 95% of our “doctors” are salesmen intend on you taking something for something; most don’t know ethical medical practices about holistic care because Big Pharma paid for their medical schooling. That evidence is out there. Big Pharma brags about it.

Our medical community and government spending needs an overhaul. The two are tied together and the bond needs to be severed. At this point, all these different endeavors should be GoFundMe donation platforms. That’s essentially what St. Jude does. So, whether it’s cancer, ALS, PETA, The Boston Symphony, University endowments, Big Auto, radio stations, media outlets, or all these science experiments studying cocaine effects on fish and rats and flies eating beagles, find someone else besides the government to fund the endeavor.

I cannot explain what made the cut and what didn’t. Personally, I’d have closed the government till 1/20, but that didn’t happen. Wouldn’t that be scary? No. Not a big deal.

Instead, the 1500+ package was whittled down to 116 pages - I think that was the number. Whatever made the cut is still too much for a country $36 Trillion in debt and with a Congress with a majority body possessing zero knowledge on money, budgets, zero balanced budgets, paying off debt, credit limits/debt ceiling, or spending more than $2T over budget. You and I might be able to talk money. The bulk of Congress doesn’t understand that it’s OUR money not the government’s money; they see a prepaid debit card with zero limits and think they can spend whatever they want on anything. Because of that, we’re $36T in debt and Big Pharma continues to “research” cancer treatments without ever finding a cure. Would you find a cure and stop the flow of money?

[stellarhangout]

please please please vote for Biden if you can and you're an American. we have a system where only the D or R nominee can win. if you vote 3rd party instead of Biden, you are subtracting a vote from Biden, which in our broken system could heavily impact the election.

i know, biden isn't an amazing president. and i wish we had someone better. but we cannot afford to have someone who will enact a nationwide policy of discrimination against LGBTQ+ people. nobody would be safe, even in democratic states.

if you for some reason don't care about those rights, and you instead only care about Gaza, think about what trump has said he'll do vs. what biden has done. biden has given some support to netanyahu, but trump will give his full support to netanyahu in his genocide. biden has given aid to gaza, trump will give zero.

you know how the supreme court overturned abortion and has done plenty of other shitty things? if trump wasn't ever president, there would've been liberal justices who would've protected americans. we will likely have an even more conservative court if trump is elected.

this is an election which will have huge consequences. it is imperative that every american who is able to votes for biden.

also, vote downballot! even in a red state or a blue state, there are swing districts that could go either way! if we can stop republicans from having full control of congress, that severely limits trump's opportunities to do stuff (he'd still be able to do a lot, though)

[mokeonn]

Fuck it, I'm swinging at the hornets' nest.

I need someone to explain to me what the use of voting in the presidential election is. Since America is a republic and not a democracy, the popular vote doesn't actually determine who wins, the electoral college does. The representatives of each state have the final say over who they vote for regardless of what their citizens say.

And I understand that in a swing state, voting would be more likely to have an impact on what your state representative chooses, but let's face it, some states are set in stone. California's representatives are going to vote blue. Texas' representatives are going to vote red. Even if a significant portion of their voters say otherwise, they're very specifically "red states" and "blue states", and that's not going to change.

So my questions are all related to these facts. We do not have a democracy, we have a replublic, our individual vote does not have the power to decide who is president. We have seen MULTIPLE times that the popular vote can lose. Most notable, in 2016 when Hillary Clinton won the popular vote and lost the election overall because Trump got 304 votes over Hillary's 227.

In fact, there's literally a term FOR representatives who claim they will vote for one party and then actually vote another or abstain instead (faithless votes)

Really, I want to know, why does voting for president matter? Why does it matter if I "vote blue no matter who"? In the end it seems to me completely out of my hands, especially since I am currently living in a non-swing state.

Now, I want to make it clear to anyone reading, yes. Voting in general matters. Since we live in a republic, it's up to us to decide who represents us and our local governments from a state level down to a city/town level. My question is not related to the usefulness of voting in America in general, it is just related to the usefulness of voting for the president.

Every day I am CONSTANTLY bombarded with the sentiment that I MUST vote in this election and that I MUST vote for a specific candidate (online it's vote blue and offline it's people telling me vote red.)

But ever since 2016 when I looked into and learned about the electoral college, I've had a very difficult time understanding what the impact of voting in the presidential election means. One moment I have it explained to me that by definition my vote doesn't matter when it comes to deciding the president, and every time I look into how the electoral college works it seems to feed into that idea, but everyone around me is acting like if I don't vote or decide to vote based on my beliefs rather than a 2 party system (aka voting 3rd party), then I am suddenly basically giving a vote to the other guy (which doesn't sound correct at all???)

So yeah, I have a million more questions when it comes to things like 3rd parties, but right now I want to focus on this. I have yet to receive an answer that helps me understand why voting for president in a republic matters. So far the answer I have been receiving from research is "it doesn't", but everyone around me has been screaming from the rooftops that it does and saying otherwise would make me a bad person.

Also please take this whole thing in the best faith possible, I am not saying this to sealion or be obtuse I'm just genuinely confused because the attitude around me is not matching the information in front of me. It's very confusing to me.

[ardri-na-bpiteog]

Also if you're an American who is rightfully disillusioned with the two-party system and perpetual "lesser of two evils" cycle, I would highly encourage you to get involved in movements for Ranked Choice Voting.

While not perfect, and I would personally prefer a complete overhaul to introduce a parliamentary system with a form of proportional representation, Ranked Choice is a bit more realistically achievable within the current framework that exists in the United States.

With the a first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system like the US currently has, third parties are always going have an incredibly small chance of success, barring major disruption or the internal collapse of one of the two main parties. The fact is that it is always going to be difficult, if not outright impossible, for a third party to pull enough voters from one of the existing main parties to actually win.

Because of this, it is difficult to convince people to support third parties because they will fear splitting the vote of their voting bloc, leading to the party they want least to win.

Ranked Choice Voting helps eliminate or mitigate some of these problems by allowing voters to rank the candidates in order of preference. If there are 4 candidates, the voter assigns them each a number in order of preference, 1-4.

The counting method then usually promoted in the US for single-member districts is the instant run-off method. In this case the votes would be counted and if no candidate won over 50% of 1st preference votes the candidate with the lowest number of votes would be eliminated. The 2nd preference votes from the eliminated candidate are then redistributed to the remaining candidates. This continues until someone wins over 50% of the vote.

This way, people can safely vote for third parties without worrying about splitting the vote, because the system takes into account their preferences.

Here's a sample scenario:

There is an election and 4 candidates run for election in a particular district and their vote percentages are as follows:

Candidate 1 for the Republican Party: 30%

Candidate 2 for the Democratic Party: 25%

Candidate 3 for the Libertarian Party: 21%

Candidate 4 for the Green Party: 24%

Using the existing FPTP system, the Republican Party candidate wins, even though 70% of voters did not vote for them.

But with Ranked Choice Voting, the Libertarian candidate is eliminated and their votes redistributed. Let's say that most of them put The Republicans as their 2nd preference (12 points) but 6 points go to The Green Party and 3 to the Democrats:

Candidate 1 for the Republican Party: 42%

Candidate 2 for the Democratic Party: 28%

Candidate 4 for the Green Party: 30%

Since still no one has over 50% of the vote, the Democratic Party Candidate is eliminated and their votes redistributed. Let's say those voters overwhelmingly voted for the Green Party Candidate as their 2nd preference, or their 3rd (in the case where their 2nd preference was the Libertarian Party Candidate, who has been eliminated).

The new vote totals are thus as follows:

Candidate 1 for the Republican Party: 44%

Candidate 4 for the Green Party: 56%

This time, the Green Party Candidate wins because the system accounted for the preferences of the voters, the majority of whom did not want the Republican Candidate to win.

TLDR: Pushing for Ranked Choice Voting is something tangible you can do to slightly improve the shitshow that is American Politics and I would strongly encourage everyone to educate themselves on it and to push for it in all elections that you can. There are some active Ranked Choice Voting campaigns out there, but even educating the people you know on Ranked Choice Voting and how it is a better representation of the desires of the electorate is a good start.

Disclaimer: This post is not intended as a lecture on why you should or should not vote for a third party candidate in the upcoming election. Please do NOT try to start arguments on my post about whether or not it is morally acceptable to vote for third parties. That's not the point of this post, this post is intended to inform people about Ranked Choice Voting and how First-Past-The-Post is a terrible system that screws over the American people.