Quote:
Originally Posted by joeydb
Are you kidding?
You are correct of course about the electoral vote, but obviously the vote that did not go to which candidate has a chance to win that is still more favorable to the third-party voter than the Democrat does have an impact.
Count the votes on the top of this page. If the Johnson votes went to Romney instead, doesn't the result become clearer? It is much more likely that the third-party voter will lose the election for Romney than win it for Johnson - astronomically so.
So again - in 2012 - with the polls where they are - even plus or minus 10% for Obama or Romney - a vote for Johnson is equivalent to a vote for Obama.
That is the math of it, and all the motivation, justification, and hand-wringing before and after casting the vote is meaningless. The MATH is all that MATTERS as that is what drives the RESULT.
|
no, i'm not kidding. you might want to look up electoral votes, and the entire voting process for president.
presidents aren't elected by popular vote, or majority vote. each state has its own rules regarding electoral votes, and how they are obtained. in some states, whoever wins the popular vote wins the entire number of electoral votes. in others, they are apportioned. so, altho ross got almost 20% of the popular vote, his votes in each state weren't enough to garner a single electoral vote. he had, therefore, zero chance to win the presidency.
also, you're assuming that all votes for 3rd party candidates would go to romney if they didn't go to an alternative. what is that based on? they could just as easily go to obama.
at any rate, it doesn't matter one whit in how i decide to vote. i will vote my conscience, and it will not be for obama or romney. they don't deserve my vote.
as for your assumptions about where a 3rd party vote would wind up if one had to choose between romney and obama. i'd vote for the latter. but, i get to choose.