hopelessly devoted to deconstructing popular culture and conventional wisdom, one blog at a time

Every candidate counts

Published Thursday, October 07, 2004 by seanlmccarthy | E-mail this post

All the focus remains on Ralph Nader and whether he'll tip the election toward Bush. The New York Sun suggests Libertarian Michael Badnarik might "spoil" the election. You're looking the wrong way. Every additional candidate tips the scales away from all of the others.

Just look at Flordia, circa 2000. The official multi-counted vote totals from 2000 reveal this to be true.

Bush defeated Gore by 537 votes in Florida. Forget about Nader -- compare that to how many Floridians in 2000 voted for...

Pat Buchanan -- 17,484
Libertarian Harry Browne -- 16,415
Natural Law Party, John Hagelin -- 2,281
Workers World Party, Monica Moorehead -- 1,804
Howard Phillips of varied Constitutional-related parties -- 1,371
Socialist David McReynolds -- 622
Socialist Worker Campaign, James Harris -- 562

You can spin this at least two ways. You could argue that each candidate brings new voters to an election who otherwise would not have participated. Or, as the major parties will tell you, each new candidate "spoils" the election by "wasting" your vote. Tell them you have a right to vote for whomever you want to be president, even if I disagree with your selection. Just remember to vote. A protest vote is much more effective if you actually cast it rather than sitting out Election Day.