The Wasted Vote Myth: From a Libertarian Perspective
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and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost." -- John Quincy Adams by Contact the author*. (c) 1999. Introduction The biggest objection by allies to voting for a Third Party is the "wasted vote" argument -- the idea that if you vote for someone who will not win, then the vote does not count. Merely suggest that a friend or loved one consider voting for a third party candidate and you will hear ad nauseum, "I don't want to waste my vote." Before delving into the extent of the wasted vote myth, some other myths must be addressed first: Myth #1: Third party candidates are never elected. Minor parties won gubernatorial elections in Alaska, Connecticut, Maine, and Minnesota during the 1990's. Independents regularly get elected to state legislatures --every election cycle. In the 1990's, Independents were elected to Congress in Missouri, Vermont and Virginia. Ross Perot outpolled George Bush in Maine in 1992 and outpolled Bill Clinton in Utah in 1992. The dominant party in Mexico between 1929 and 2000 lost the presidential election there in 2000. New things are constantly happening in the world of politics. Myth #2: Libertarians are never elected to public office. Libertarians are currently serving on State Planning Committees in Colorado, Indiana, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, and North Carolina. Libertarian Kirby Brandt serves on the Wisconsin State Elections Board. And Libertarians Ira J. Raab, James P. Gray, and John Buttrick are superior or state court judges in New York, California, and Arizona, respectively. The first elected Libertarian state legislator was Dick Randolph, who was elected in 1978 (just seven short years after the founding of the Libertarian Party) in Alaska. Randolph was re-elected in 1980 along with Alan Fanning, another Libertarian, to the Alaska state legislature. In 1984, Andre Marrou was elected to the state legislature of Alaska to join the two other Libertarian officials. In 1987, Libertarians were elected to every seat on the city council in Big Water, Utah. In 1991, New Hampshire state legislators Calvin Warburton and Finlay Rothhaus resigned from the Republican Party and joined the Libertarian Party. They were joined on the New Hampshire state legislature in 1992 by Don Gorman and Andy Borsa. In 1994, Jim McClarin was the next Libertarian elected to the New Hampshire state legislature. Donald Gorman, the Libertarian minority caucus leader in the New Hampshire state legislature, was re-elected in 1994 and served until 1996. Meanwhile, in 1992, Bonnie Flickinger won election as Mayor of Moreno Valley, California. Numerous Libertarians were elected to city councils from this point on. Additionally, since 1992, Libertarian mayors have been an up-and-coming phenomenon. In 1998 alone, nineteen Libertarians were elected to office, including Vermont state representative Neil Randall. Randall joined Gary Richardson, a member of the Libertarian Party of Vermont, in the legislature. In 2000, Steve Villaincourt was elected to the New Hampshire state legislature on the Libertarian Party ticket. Over 600 Libertarian officials are currently serving in office in the United States. Myth #3: Libertarians cannot accomplish anything even if they are elected. Art Olivier was elected as the mayor of Bellflower, California (population 67,000) and served from 1997 to 1998. During his tenure, Bellflower privatized tree trimming, crossing guards, street sweeping and the Building Department. Olivier forced the city to place its utility tax on the ballot and outright eliminated the lighting assessment tax. The Bellflower city council passed themselves a lifetime medical and dental insurance package. Councilmembers were qualified to receive this package after serving part-time on the council for five years. This was costing the taxpayers $8,000 a year for each retired councilmember. As more councilmembers were retiring, costs were getting out of hand. Mayor Olivier introduced a motion to eliminate this costly perk. Since the rest of the council was already grandfathered in receiving the insurance package, they went along and voted to eliminate the package for future councilmembers. Before Olivier was on the city council, Bellflower passed a little known ordinance that made parking a recreational vehicle (RV) in your own driveway, illegal. That law was never enforced. That is until one of the "good ol' boys" finished building a large RV storage yard on the edge of town. One of the victims of the stupid law brought an angry mob with her to the city council meetings until the council overturned that ridiculous law. Libertarians are for real change. What is a Wasted Vote? An unprincipled vote is the only wasted vote. Voting for a third party, contrary to popular belief, is not a wasted vote. What is voting? It's a chance to tell the country -- and perhaps even the world -- what your vision of government and society really is. But how do most of us vote? Do the majority of those who believe Harry Browne or Ralph Nader are the best candidates -- most in tune with our own feelings -- actually vote for them? No. Instead, most of us vote the "lesser of two evils" -- a defensive vote, rather than an offensive one. The lesser of two evils is still evil. So what happens after you vote the defensive vote? Well, then you have sold out your personal beliefs. You have become a political prostitute. You aren't standing up for what you believe in by voting the lesser of two evils. I don't know about you, but I'm tired of being a political prostitute -- voting for the people who don't care if I vote for them or not. If you think the Republican or the Democrat candidate really does best mirror your beliefs, by all means, vote for that candidate. But if you don't, and you still vote for them, you're helping to preserve the status quo you probably despise. Remember, You Never Decide the Winner On statewide races (larger than city council races), there is a single important point to remember: You as an individual will never cast the deciding ballot! Hence there is no reason to vote for the lesser evil. Most of the time we hear the wasted vote argument most in precisely the races where it applies least. For instance, the Presidency of the United States. A Presidential race will never be decided by one vote. And if by some mathematical chance it got that close, it would be decided through the Courts and through lawsuits (as the 2000 election was decided). If you go to the polls for the purpose of casting the deciding ballot in major races, you are making an irrational decision. The chances of dying en route in a car, plane, or meteor accident are far greater than the chance of casting the deciding ballot. What's the Point of Voting? We as individuals don't vote to select the winner. As a practical matter, we vote to tell everyone else which choice best represents the direction which we want the country to go. When you vote, you gain a certain power that a non-voter doesn't have; the power to change America through the political process. Therefore voting lesser evil sends the wrong message; it's sending a message of compromise. In effect, a defensive vote says: "I will settle for a good America, not the best America possible." I urge you not to settle. Remember: If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten. The only constant in the world is that change never stops. In other words, if you want change, create change. Even if once in your life you missed the chance to cast that mythical deciding ballot, the harm from selecting the wrong person in one election is more than offset by a lifetime of giving voter support to the lesser of two evils rather than standing up for what you believe. The history of third parties in America is that they serve as the vanguard for new ideas. It is these ideas that make the world go round. If a Third Party begins to draw votes, one or both of the two big parties steal their ideas. Socialists Can Teach Us Something The most successful third party in the Twentieth Century was the Socialist Party. While never winning any significant elections, their small but growing vote totals were a threat to the Democrats. Thus the Democrats, and then later the Republicans, adopted piecemeal every major tenet of the 1916 Socialist Party platform. Libertarians are the opposite of the Socialists, but Libertarians must find their successes instructive. The radical ideas about liberty that were shaped in 1971 are now being seriously debated or, in some cases, implemented by the other parties. An increasing number of Libertarian votes is continuously noted by the politicians as well as the media. So rather than waste your vote on Democrats or Republicans, cast a meaningful ballot that clearly says what you believe. Libertarians Are the Future Despite the fact that the Libertarian Party continues to run more candidates in better-funded campaigns each election cycle, it is common to hear: "I really like Libertarian candidates, but I dont want to waste my vote." As Albert Einstein warned, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Voting Democrat and voting Republican, over and over and over again, has not -- and will not -- yield positive results. After watching both Democrats and Republicans make promises that frequently become lies, two conclusions should become evident: The lesser of two evils is still evil and the only way to waste your vote is not to use it for a candidate that sends the message (or the policies) you want to send (or that you want implemented). In all honesty, it doesnt matter which evil you vote for if evil still wins. If you have principles, then vote for your local or state Libertarian candidate. Watergate of Nixon, and the incompetence of Carter. Saying we should keep the two-party system simply because it is working is like saying the Titanic voyage was a success because a few people survived on life-rafts." -- Eugene J. McCarthy, 1978 * Content suggestions, data, and contributions made by Lance M. Brown, Thomas L. Knapp, Richard Rider, and Richard Winger. Related Links A powerful response to the wasted vote argument by Michael Cloud. Are votes for third parties wasted? by Dr. Steven Shmanske. Blackwell wins when he rejects Libertarian bid by Steve Stephens. Counter-intuitive campaigning by Thomas Sipos. Don't throw your vote away by Jason A. Trommetter. Duverger's law at the Two Party System in Congress by Andy Kvochik. IRV reduces "wasted votes" by FairVote.Org. Mythology of the Wasted Vote by Steve Trinward. Third party vote sends real message by Elaine Bellucci. Wasted vote syndrome by Allan Wallace. Wasted vote? No! by Green Party activist. Wasting Votes by Matthew Hunter. Which votes are wasted? by Brian Katzung. Who really is wasting their vote? by Manish Raiji. Why Aren't You a Libertarian? by Tracy A. Ryan. |
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