To anyone who says both parties are the same: Fuck. You.

[zipplewrath]

90. I can

This argument rests upon the assumption that a significant portion of the third party votes would have voted for the losing party. There is little evidence of that. What evidence I've seen over the years is that third party is akin to "write in". It is a protest vote. It is an opportunity to vote, without having to actually chose between the two actually competing candidates. Presuming that if that opportunity to vote for a third party candidate means they would have voted for the next closest choice isn't clear. Too many third party voters of which I know, would participate at all if not for the third party candidate. One can actually make a case that third party tickets have the opportunity to help down ticket races by bringing in more voters.

Quite honestly, I don't think most of these voters actually thought their vote mattered at all. I know a couple of Stein voters and I am positive they knew that Stein had literally no chance. Furthermore, I suspect they thought, because of the state in which they lived, that they could "get away with it anyway". i.e. Hillary would win with or without them. They would never say it, but I strongly suspect this is true. But I also strongly suspect that if Stein hadn't been in the race, they'd a voted for no one at all.