Americans, would any of you consider maybe voting for a third party candidate (instead of Trump or Clinton)

I live in Florida, so no, I don’t have the luxury of a protest vote. the Bush/Gore election was decided by less than 600 votes in Florida.

I will vote for whomever is most likely to keep the guy who legit asked why we can’t use nuclear weapons out of office.

I’m watching the Wacken music festival right now, on live streaming. The last three bands – all not American – have expressed negative feelings about Donald Trump and his influence on America.

We have to keep him out for the sake of our perception as a sane country in the eyes of the rest of the world.

This election? No. My vote is going to Clinton and I ain’t even holding my nose about it.

No, Trump is too dangerous.

@Seek has an excellent point. We do not vote directly for the president. We vote for electors who then vote for the president. If you live in a state where the voting is likely to be close, then you’re vote counts a great deal. I live in a solidly Democratic state. Hawaii always votes for the Democrat. (That’s not to say it is impossible for it to be otherwise. It is possible but very remote.) I could conceivably vote for a third party without affecting the outcome in Hawaii, but I won’t. I actually quite like Hillary.

I remember the first time her husband was running. They stopped in San Francisco where I was living at the time, and I saw them drive by. I heard from friends who were at a party for them that a woman there heard Hillary deliver a speech. The woman asked Hillary why she wasn’t running. Hillary answered, “Vote for him, and you get me, too.”

I followed her efforts to get some kind of national health care in her husband’s terms and that failure. It was unfortunate. I continued to follow her career, and I have been genuinely impressed. She is brilliant.

I supported Obama during the election when they were opponents, but I am a solid supporter of Hillary now.

Not this time around. If Bloomberg had run as a third party candidate, I would have voted for him.

None of the others (Johnson, Stein) can be taken seriously.

There are other political parties in the U. S. besides the Democrats and the Republicans, such as the Libertarian (Candidate Gary Johnson), and The Green Party (Jill Stein).

I have several friends who claim they are voting for Jill Stein.

Yes. So far it’s Stein.

When the Green party can get their shit together enough to have someone on a local ballot, I’ll pay then more attention.

I would definitely consider it in the abstract but in this election – no!

Sure I’d vote for a third party. I sure as hell wouldn’t do it just to make a political statement.

Not now. It’s too important to do what is necessary to keep Trump out.

No. The major party candidate I’m voting for, despite flaws, has the brains, experience, temperament and gravitas to do the job better than any other candidate of any stripe.

As @Mariah pointed out, it doesn’t mean much in states like California where I live. It will not even be close here. But my choice happens to be well qualified, experienced, knowledgable, and smart. So I will vote for her.

I, too, will vote for a major party candidate that is not Donald Trump.
I’m well resigned to it.

I will not vote for Trump or Clinton. I have been a lifelong Democrat, but after this election I consider myself an Independent.

I live in Illinois. A state that has voted for a Democratic president every election cycle since 1992. It will not swing for Trump. My vote is for Stein this year.

The closer the vote is the more it legitimizes Trump and his brand of evil.

It is already happening. There is a fair amount more of open racism, misogyny, and so on. If it is 51% and 49% those fucks will think the country almost agrees with them.

They must be defeated in a major way to know that the country will never return to what they want.

Stein keeps running and proving that she can’t win in her own progressive state (2 runs for governor, a run for house of reps, a run for Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwelth, a previous run for president.) She has, however, been elected to the a Town Meeting Of Lexington Mass, population less than 35,000. Even living in a deeply blue state, as I do, I don’t think I have the luxury of taking a chance on a protest vote.
Besides, I see no reason to stop trusting Sanders now. I would have trusted him to be president, I trust his judgement still.

I was going to, or I was going to write Bernie’s name, but I’m voting for Hillary because I think Trump is either a genuine sociopath or he has mental problems. I will continue to change our system in whatever ways available to me, because it’s beyond corrupt, but Trump is just too dangerous for the world.

It doesn’t matter who I vote for in my State of Washington where the queen of corruption will likely win.

This year I would definitely vote for a third party candidate.

Right now I’m thinking about voting for Dr. Ben Carson or Nikki Haley.

Here is a good video summary of many of the feelings and reasons why so many Sanders supporters will not vote for Clinton, in case anyone actually doesn’t get it and is curious.

@gondwanalon… * sigh *

I always do, I look to see if there is a name I don’t know…..VOTE THAT ONE.

I saw this today, it explains things very well, I think. (The bold emphasis is my own.)

“Throwing away your vote on a message no one will hear, and which will change no outcome, is sometimes presented as ‘voting your conscience’, but that’s got it exactly backwards; your conscience is what keeps you from doing things that feel good to you but hurt other people. Citizens who vote for third-party candidates, write-in candidates, or nobody aren’t voting their conscience, they are voting their ego, unable to accept that a system they find personally disheartening actually applies to them.” – Clay Shirky

^That’s just a smug opinion. It’s not the truth.

What is a Wasted Vote?

An unprincipled vote is the only wasted vote.

Voting for a third party, contrary to popular belief, is not a wasted vote.

What is voting? It’s a chance to tell the country — and perhaps even the world — what your vision of government and society really is.

But how do most of us vote? Do the majority of those who believe Harry Browne or Ralph Nader is the best candidate, most in tune with our own feelings, actually vote for them? No. Instead, most of us vote the “lesser of two evils” — a defensive vote, rather than an offensive one.

The lesser of two evils is still evil.

So what happens after you vote the defensive vote? Well, then you have sold out your personal beliefs. You have become a political prostitute. You aren’t standing up for what you believe in by voting “the lesser of two evils.”

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of being a political hooker. If you think the Republican or the Democrat really does best mirror your beliefs, by all means, vote for that candidate. But if you don’t, and you still vote for them, you’re helping to preserve the status quo you probably despise.

Remember, You Never Decide the Winner

On statewide races (larger than city council races), there is a single important point to remember: You as an individual will never cast the deciding ballot! Hence there is no reason to vote for the lesser evil.

Most of the time we hear the wasted vote argument most in precisely the races where it applies least. For instance, the Presidency of the United States.

A Presidential race will never be decided by one vote. And if, by some mathematical chance it got that close, it would be decided politically by Congress.

-John McAlister

That’s where we differ in opinion, @jonsblond. I do not believe that Clinton is the devil’s spawn. I do believe that Sanders and Warren know more about this stuff than you or I. And frankly, this statement of yours:
“I live in Illinois. A state that has voted for a Democratic president every election cycle since 1992. It will not swing for Trump. My vote is for Stein this year.” smacks a little too much of anti-vaxxer logic. You’re hoping to be protected by herd immunity.

You want a viable alternative candidate? What have you been doing for the last 20 years to promote one? Have you campaigned for one on the local level? Have you, yourself run for city council? As a state representative? School board?
Read the last sentence of my last post. Really. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean it doesn’t apply to you, as a citizen of this country. If you want things to change, you have to work for them, they won’t happen in a couple of months because you decide, without putting the work in, that they simply should.

I don’t get the impression that you think she can win, you just want to make yourself feel good. Which supports absolutely the highlighted portion of my previous post.

Yes, it’s truth. It may not be your truth, but it’s truth.

And why are you posting at all if not to influence others? Your “one vote” logic doesn’t hold up here, considering that.

Protests work because of the number of people rallying behind the sign or picket line for an extended period of time, demonstrating a cause’s magnitude and giving it the chance to grow into a larger movement.

Political statements work because they are dramatic enough to get the country’s attention and spur a discussion, giving an issue a chance to grow into a larger discussion.

A vote doesn’t seem to do either of those things. We walk into voting booths or we mail in ballots, and then we are done. Votes are single, periodic acts—in this case, once every four years. And that is it. A vote’s lasting impact is in the person or policy placed into a position of power—not in an individual’s vote.

If we want to be making changes for the country, we should be pushing for them before the election.

By the election time, we will have a set number of people to vote for, and almost none of us will agree with everything about any candidate.

The strategic move seems to be picking the person who represents our position most closely and has the best chance of getting in—that way at least some of our ideas are pushed into the system of power. And then between elections, we have the time to join groups and fight for greater recognition, or understanding, or support of the causes we hold dear. It’s in the non-election periods that protests and political statements have the time and space they need to take root and establish themselves so that they can be a greater force during the election itself.

Sure it’s difficult to get the whole country’s attention. But perhaps if we didn’t view votes as our primary means of political voice (merely a tool in an arsenal of tools), we would have more success.

And yes, this is an unusual election considering how Bernie got so many new political issues recognized during his campaign… But even then it wasn’t the votes that got those political issues recognized. It was the activism on the part of him and his supporters, and the length of the election campaign that gave them the time to grow.

No. I’m backing Bernie and Obama. They know a lot more about this stuff than I do, and I believe they both genuinely want what is best for the country.

@Soubresaut I agree completely.

A third party vote is a wasted vote if you’re not putting in the work and the votes during non-presidential years. Third parties wither on the vine with no influence not because the two major parties rig the game so much, but because people don’t put in the steady, consistent legwork to build and grow the parties. Waking up every fours years to cast a single “conscience” vote isn’t enough. It is not nearly enough.