• sleep_deprived@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I should have been more clear - I meant that since the electoral college is only used for presidential elections, its existence does not (meaningfully) affect the viability of a third party since the vast majority of elections are not decided by it. 100% agree with what you’re saying.

    • DarkGamer@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Thanks for elaborating. I agree, for a third party to successfully emerge in the US under our current system it would probably have the best odds if they started with local government.

    • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      In theory and over-simplified this would be true, in practice I think the way the electoral college has failed when 4+ candidates get into a tight election has lead to a lot of safeguards being created: The US political parties as institutions became more hostile to third parties and both the states and feds adopted laws more favorable to a two party system.

      Canada, & UK for instance don’t quite adhere to duverger’s law as strongly and in fact most non-US countries that still have fptp elections seem to have more diverse party systems.