The recount of the United States presidential elections has already begun in some states. Nobody doubts that the next president of the United States will be a Democrat or a Republican.: Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are the only two candidates with options to reach the White House this November 5 in the United States elections. However, that does not mean that the election is reduced to former president and vice president, since There are, as in any democracy, other candidates.
They are the candidates of the so-called third parties and the independent candidates: formations and candidates that They have no expectation of being electedbut whose percentage of votes per state, no matter how minimal, can cost you victory in a State (and all its electoral votes, according to the winner-takes-all rule) to one of the two big parties.
The vote for these parties can be decisive by influencing the final result of the election: hardly a handful of votes for an independent candidate can cost Trump or Harris dozens of electoral votesand ultimately the presidency of the United States.
The ‘other’ candidates in the US elections
In these elections there are several candidates from other parties who are not known to the general public and a large part of the voters, but their ballot will be at the polling stations on November 5.
- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (independent candidate)
- Jill Stein (Green Party)
- Chase Oliver (Libertarian Party)
- Cornel West (independent candidate)
As each State has its own electoral rules and thresholds, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will be the only ones who have a ballot in all the electoral colleges of the 50 states, while the candidates of the third parties They can only be voted on in some of them.
This is especially relevant in the swing states or key states, those where the difference between Trump and Harris is so small that any detail, such as the vote for the third partiescan decide victory for Democrats or Republicans.
The key role of the ‘third parties’ in these elections
In these elections, which the tightest in recent decades are expected In the United States, the candidates of the third parties They could be the key to defining the presidency of Trump or Harris taking votes from one of the candidates. The historian Richard Hofstadter, in fact, compared them to bees: “once they bite, they die”that is, after chopping and subtracting votes from a party, they disappear from public debate after the elections.
Such is the influence they could have on the final result that one of the independent candidates, Robert F. Kennedywhose ballot will be in more than 25 states, ended up calling for the vote for Donald Trumpknowing that the votes for his candidacy could cost the magnate the presidency and tip the balance in favor of Harris. In fact, Kennedy In principle it will be on the ballots in Michigan and Wisconsintwo swing states that distribute 25 electoral delegates, as explained by the The New York Times.
Could there be a third party in the United States?
In any case, The presidential race has almost always been two: Democrats and Republicans. Since 1853, they have shared the power of the White House, something that has remained unchanged over time. However, the performance and political and public work of the two giants of North American politics would have raised eyebrows. citizen interest in a third alternative.
This reflects it a study by the Gallup consultancyand which is echoed Newtral according to the report, 63% of Americans consider the emergence of a third party necessaryas punishment for the “poor job” of Democrats and Republicans “in representing the American people.”
This percentage of discontent has grown significantly in the last 20 years. In 2003, with George W. Bush on the verge of his reelection, 56% of citizens considered the performance of the two major parties adequate. Today that percentage is a mere 34%.
In any case, the option of a real alternative government by a third party in the US is, today, very remote: the political and economic structures of Democrats and Republicans, in addition to the political system: the ‘Duverger law’ Theorizes that, in majority voting and single-round elections, “there is a tendency toward party dualism.”