Major barrier to 3rd-party candidates: The Electoral College

[JaneQPublic]

Apparently, the winner-take-all feature of the Electoral College makes a successful third-party POTUS candidacy a near impossibility (so says something political scientists call "Duverger's Law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duverger%27s_law).

So with all the talk about whether a Howard Schultz Independent candidacy would make him a worthy contender or a Trump-aiding spoiler, I looked into just how successful third-party POTUS candidates have been in gaining electoral votes.

The short answer is: Not very.

Some the most famous third-party candidates in recent years --- Jill Stein, Gary Johnson, H. Ross Perot, John Anderson, and Ralph Nader -- never earned a single electoral vote.

Ron Paul, Rand's dad and the Libertarian candidate in 1988 and a write-in candidate in 2008, won a single electoral vote, but not in those years. It was in 2016, apparently the work of a "faithless elector."

Going back a full century, the only third-party presidential candidates on the ballot to earn electoral votes were the following folks:

> 1924 - Robert LaFollette (Progressive Party) - 13 votes (2.4%)

> 1948 - Strom Thurmond (States' Rights Party) - 39 votes (7.3%)

> 1968 - George Wallace (American Independent Party) - 46 votes (8.6%)

> 1972 - John Hospers (Libertarian Party) - 1 vote, by a faithless elector (0.2%)

So, are third-party POTUS candidates legitimate contenders or just spoilers? In light of their dismal record for winning the White House, I vote "spoiler."

Even Teddy Roosevelt, running as the Progressive Party candidate in 1912, couldn't pull off a win.

Sure, other countries manage more than just two parties, but they don't have the Electoral College.

I'm all for eliminating the Electoral College, but only because it enables GOPers to win and therefore hinders Dems.

If anyone's interested, here's a couple of sources I found most interesting:

"Third Party Presidential Candidates":
https://www.presidentsusa.net/thirdparty.html

"List of people who received an electoral vote in the United States Electoral College"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_received_an_electoral_vote_in_the_United_States_Electoral_College

[FSogol]

1. While Strom Thurmond's politics came from 1848, he ran in 1948. n/t

[JaneQPublic]

2. Ha! Thanks so much for the catch!

I'll edit that right now.

[marble falls]

3. The real barrier to a third party is the two party system. Without a runoff component ...

in event of no candidates getting over 50% of the vote, third party challenges are only at best spoilers.

[Hortensis]

4. Thanks for the survey. Do I remember the shock

at George Wallace's performance, or just reading about it later? Whatever. It followed the 1964 Voting Rights Act, and we're still experiencing the acting out of those Southern-type conservatives (wherever they are) who unfortunately lived on to dominate the Republican Party.

[tritsofme]

5. Their biggest barrier is failing to win a majority or plurality of the vote in any state

These candidates simply lack the popular support to win in any single state, let alone enough to win a majority of electoral votes.