Third Party Candidates and US Presidential Election

Source: Malice (2016)

A very investigative insight has been marked about the Presidential Election in the US that highlights the values of American political culture. As per a poll released on 12^th May 2010, by NBC/Wall Street Journal, 83% of the US population stated that in a two-party political system, there remains no space for a third party (Bartlett, 2010). The participants of this poll also stated that the Presidential Election of the US should come up with more choices and that third-party candidates should be allowed to be a part of such elections. As identified by Bartlett (2010), the Constitution of the US has
implemented the formal provision of electing the US President by the Electoral College. At this point, it has been marked that every state gets votes that remain equal to the total number of representatives or senators. In such a system, none of the states can gain less than 3 votes. For Presidential candidature, the candidates need to possess an absolute majority in front of the Electoral College, which is a static count of 270 votes. This compulsion is the basic hindrance for third parties and eventually makes them unviable. On a practical ground, it appears impossible for any third-party candidate to be the President of the US. This can be well exemplified by the least highlighted status of Barry Goldwater, against the election campaign of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Secondly, if we consider the election of 1992, we can see that in that election H. Ross Perot was polling in first position at different voting points. This is noted as an ‘unprecedented feat’ for any independent candidate (Malice, 2016). Perot was assured to gain from 50 states but came up with just 19% of the total votes. On practical grounds, this is a provision that is subject to lead the population into a two-party system is Duverger's law, representing ‘plurality-rule elections’ in the zone of single-member districts that support a two-party system (Grofman, Bernard., Blais, Andre. and Bowler, Shaun, edits., 2009). This is proof that in the US, the electoral vote always remains in favour of the largest plurality. On a precise note, the Presidential election is based on absolute plurality voting preferences that get further filtered by the Electoral College.

Works Cited
Bartlett, Bruce. "Why Third Parties Can't Compete." Forbes Media LLC. Web 14th May 2010
Malice, Michael.  "Why Third-Party Candidates Can’t Win: At some point things stop being a coincidence." Observer. Web. 12th July 2016
Grofman, Bernard., Blais, Andre. and Bowler, Shaun (edts.) Duverger's Law of Plurality Voting: The Logic of Party Competition in Canada, India, the United Kingdom and the United States. Springer; 2009 edition