First-past-the-post, more like fart-past-the-post. If you think that politicians have too many brain farts, not enough shocking genius, and not enough goodwill, then keep reading. Politics being a fart cloud may seem like an unavoidable fact, but there’s a different reality to pursue. Look far out there, past the fart cloud. You see that? That’s an America filled with big dreams that we can freely chase. It’s where we will try to build the perfect government after we cross a bridge to get there. Many people already see something great in third parties. I learned about one and could not find any belief I disagree with. Why don’t nearly perfect candidates already win? There’s only one thing forcefully resisting that: we currently use the first-past-the-post (FPTP) voting system. In other words, each voter just marks one candidate per office. It creates a risk of a scenario like this one: the ideal candidate for you happens to be third-party, and you prefer the Democrat over the Republican just like most of the third-party candidate’s supporters, so voting for this third-party candidate (often called a “spoiler”) contributes to the Republican winning despite more people preferring the Democrat over the Republican. Voters are incentivized to say who is better among the Democrat and the Republican instead of saying who the ideal candidate is. In other systems, you can do both, so you can move toward perfection without being pulled back by the two-party system, and this is what makes the new America different. For example, in ranked choice voting (RCV), voters rank candidates, voters’ top choices are counted, and each vote for the least common top choice is replaced with a vote for the ballot’s next backup choice until a candidate has at least 50%. Ending FPTP should obviously be a big priority, but how exactly should you act on this priority when you still have to face the reality of voting under FPTP and all anti-FPTP candidates are third-party candidates who probably won’t win yet? Choosing between the two main candidates who aren’t anti-FPTP actively interferes with ending FPTP, so it’s wrong. Voting for your ideal candidate will be good and appealing after FPTP dies, but for now it’s also wrong. Instead, determine the most popular candidate who’s strongly anti-FPTP, regardless of whether or not they’re third-party. That candidate, along with anti-FPTP candidates who are close enough in popularity, make the transition away from FPTP possible, so they can be called transitional candidates. For now, voting for transitional candidates is what we should immediately start doing and is an effective way to improve politics because it will change everything, it may fix the problem long before third-party transitional candidates win, a single anti-FPTP candidate getting many votes is influential, and statistics give reasons for hope.
If the voting system changes, everything changes. When I thought I would need to choose between Biden and Trump, I dreaded voting. Neither candidate seemed special, I was uncomfortable with picking a side in the face of polarization, and I initially did not feel motivated to go against the status quo by voting third-party. I can’t imagine having this kind of despair under another system. Pursuing another system is our way to attack the root of this despair and cling onto the huge chunk of democracy that we lost. The FairVote website lists big differences between what happens under FPTP and RCV. Because we can’t choose backups in FPTP, so much risk of wasting one’s vote is introduced by candidates dropping out in primaries. RCV better represents what voters think the ideal candidate is. Candidates in RCV are more incentivized to appeal to all voters, compete with positive visions instead of only being the lesser of two evils, and exist as candidates in the first place instead of being worried about splitting support. Imagine the possibilities of their positive visions. Imagine the most clever and philanthropic people running, being voted for, and only getting closer and closer to winning. That’s the bigger journey that will begin when the journey away from FPTP ends.
Defeating FPTP through the growth of third-party transitional candidates might happen before such candidates win. By being present in an election, third-party candidates can cause the two main parties to have more desirable policies. In a BU Today interview, Bruce Schulman, with his expertise in political history, said that third-party candidates already have this role. It means that support for third-party transitional candidates could one day cause one of the two main candidates to have an anti-FPTP policy. That candidate would both be a transitional candidate and immediately have a huge chance of winning. Katrina Schaffner was already a Democrat nominee for a House of Representatives race and had support for ranked-choice voting as a policy, so it’s not far-fetched for the government to become full of support for ending FPTP before it becomes full of third parties. This effect of third-party transitional candidates is made more important by the possibility that the federal government one day prevents states from individually adopting a better voting system. The result of all of this is that ending FPTP is easier than it seems at first. The end is near!
In any given office in an election, voting for a transitional candidate is optimal for resulting in the biggest possible number of votes for a single anti-FPTP candidate, which in turn is optimal for moving closer to such a candidate winning before FPTP ends. Based on logic, there’s no absolute guarantee that the two main parties will give in and become anti-FPTP. Based on my personal experience of deciding who to vote for, believing that a third-party candidate can win is a major contributing factor in wanting to vote for them. Therefore, the possibility of a third-party transitional candidate winning must be kept open, transitional candidates are the best choices for putting pressure on the two main parties, and a low amount of votes for transitional candidates could be a harmful deterrent against voting for them in the future. Transitional candidates are the correct material for the bridge between FPTP and the new America.
Growth of a third-party transitional candidate is possible. According to Pew Research, “4% ... say the political system is working extremely or very well”, “a growing share of the public dislikes both political parties”, and “63% ... say they are dissatisfied with the candidates who have emerged so far”. According to Statista, in 2024, young voters were more likely than old voters to vote for a third-party presidential candidate. Because most Americans are dissatisfied with candidates, an alternative to FPTP at least in primaries, and thus a strategy to make that change happen, can become widely supported regardless of how many people dislike the two-party system. Today’s young people are the future of this world, and old people won’t continue voting forever, so the difference of young voters is a good reason to be very hopeful, and we’re already moving forward.Third-party transitional candidates have a good chance of either winning or becoming big enough threats to Democrats and Republicans.
The growth of transitional candidates is a fire that’s already burning down the two-party system. When enough of Congress becomes anti-FPTP, and neither the President nor the appointed Supreme Court justices resist the change, FPTP will end, and so much of American history can only begin after that happens. If you continue to vote against the candidates who are sustaining FPTP and delaying your dreams coming true, then one day it will be the last time that voting will ever just be “voting against”. Voting for transitional candidates is the right thing to do and the most powerful way to vote, even if it takes a few centuries for the transition away from FPTP to finish. Only your own impatience can stop you. Logically, the portion of transitional candidate voters who are truly relentless and committed will only keep on growing. The power to end FPTP comes from within ourselves, and you can have the will to escape the fart cloud because you already smell it, so go ahead and vote to escape.
Works Cited
Bouranova, Alene. “Is Voting for a Third-Party Candidate Effective or Is It a Wasted Vote? (and Other Third-Party Questions).” Boston University, BU Today, 28 Oct. 2024, www.bu.edu/articles/2024/is-voting-third-party-a-wasted-vote/. Accessed 16 Nov. 2024.
“Ranked Choice Voting Information.” FairVote, fairvote.org/our-reforms/ranked-choice-voting-information/. Accessed 16 Nov. 2024.
“Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 19 Sept. 2023, www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/09/19/americans-dismal-views-of-the-nations-politics/. Accessed 24 Nov. 2024.
“Presidential Election Exit Polls: Share of Votes by Age and Gender U.S. 2024.” Statista, Statista Research Department, 12 Nov. 2024, www.statista.com/statistics/1535288/presidential-election-exit-polls-share-votes-age-gender-us/. Accessed 24 Nov. 2024.
This work is marked with CC0 1.0 Universal