The more candidates in the race, the better for Donald J. Trump, supporters say. And in a tight presidential contest, a small share of voters could change the result.

This works because almost all the US uses first-past-the-post elections for the Presidential general election. So you get outcomes like this:

Scenario 1:

Biden: 10 votes

Trump: 9 votes

Kennedy/Stein/West: 0 votes

Biden wins the state

Scenario 2:

Biden: 9 votes

Trump: 9 votes

Kennedy/Stein/West: 1 vote

Tied vote, decided by game of chance/lawsuit

Scenario 3:

Biden: 8 votes

Trump: 9 votes

Kennedy/Stein/West: 2 votes

Trump wins the state

This is why you see huge financial support from Republican billionaires for third party candidates who have no chance of winning.

  • silence7@slrpnk.netOP
    184·
    7 months ago

    They don’t need that. All they need is to take more votes from Biden than they do from Trump. And the the polling makes it very clear that the 3rd party candidates as a group do exactly that. The benefit is something around a 3 percentage point advantage for Trump with the 3rd party candidates on the ballot vs not.

    • CaptDust@sh.itjust.works
      14·
      7 months ago

      Yeah idk, I haven’t heard any Dems say they’re going to break from Biden for someone like RFK, the dude is an anti science nut job and at least my circles see right through it. I have heard trumpists say they’d consider him if trump ended up in jail or whatever though. 🤷

      Hopefully this strategy backfires spectacularly.

      • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
        9·
        7 months ago

        Honestly, the bigger issue for dems has always been low enthusiasm leading to a lot of voters just refusing to vote.

        • lennybird@lemmy.worldEnglish
          91·
          7 months ago

          Republicans have done this for decades to great success. Usually they’ll push a wedge-driving issue with online operatives sometimes posing as grandstanding leftists who will vote 3rd party, independent, etc.

          It rarely works for Dems, but Libertarians did screw over Trump to some extent last election thanks to Jojo

    • anticolonialist@lemmy.world
      411·
      7 months ago

      This is ‘splitting the vote’ nonsense. We wouldn’t support your candidate if they were the only person on the ballot.

    • anticolonialist@lemmy.world
      212·
      7 months ago

      This is ‘splitting the vote’ nonsense. We wouldn’t support your candidate if they were the only person on the ballot.