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“It seemed this was the Year of the Third Party,” said Wendt, the former chair of Florida’s Reform Party affiliate. “This would be the year where we would be able to make an impact.”

Oh yeah. You can put Trump in office and end democracy. Guess that’s making an impact.

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I have to say that I prefer the Biden Administration with all their issues, over the scammy and incompetent Kennedy campaign and the scandal-ridden, scammy yet determined campaign led by a convicted felon, adjucated rapist and fraudster head of a felonious company.

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founding

Reading the way you present it, it is a no-brainer (not meaning that rfk, jr. or TFG meet the qualifications, because reading is required).

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Thank you. Some things seem obvious to me. This is one of them.

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founding

Don't feel like the Lone Ranger, Tonto.😉

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Thanks for opening the closet door on third party machinations that we rarely see. I hung out with Libertarians for about two minutes decades ago and walked away puzzled by the juvenile behavior and out of control egos trying to run things.

And doesn't every campaign sign contracts with 39 year old Lyft drivers?

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founding

I thought the same thing when I read that.

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founding

Just what's needed in the mix a, third party candidate and former heroin addict. WTF!

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.....whose wife committed suicide after reading his private diary about his dozens of sexual conquests.....

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founding

Why not? What used to be the GOP is going to nominate a former porn star addict.😏... well, probably "former", but only because his pattern of non-pay is too well known.

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And I thought only the major political parties were full of grifters. Guess its turtles all the way down

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Third party for president is a complete waste of time.

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I never heard of this Natural Law Party, but it’s no surprise RFK Jr. tried to take it over for ballot access. He’s as committed to it as Trump is to the Republican Party, that is, as fond of it as you are of the car you rented at the airport.

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I was a member of the Natural Law Party years ago. They were basically Transcendental Meditation folks who believed that existing parties were trying to solve problems after they arose rather than prevent them from arising in the first place (e.g., preventative medicine, healthier food, etc.). A bunch of their ideas made a lot of sense.

Was a shock to find the name come up again, but Kennedy's glib use of science and disdain for current solutions are not actually a terrible fit.

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founding

Thanks for the look into the behind the scenes goings on. Third party will always have an appeal especially when the 2 major party candidates are portrayed as poor choices. I am interested in seeing how ranked choice voting works out as more states try it. In a presidential election I wonder how it might work.

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Several red states are apparently have or are in the process of eliminating the option of ranked choice voting.

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OF COURSE they are!

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founding

Scared people usually don’t make good decisions.

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what, the Kennedy scene is nuts? really?quel surprise

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Fight boys fight!!! As long as they’re fighting each other, they’re proving they’re fringe at best. How can anyone take Kennedy serious??

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founding

So, regarding that contract, the election law attorneys are divided on the "degree to which it violated various campaign finance laws". I'll bet with a little creativity and a D.A., a felony or two could be wrangled up, which should help level the playing field somewhat between that third party and at least one of the other two.

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founding

Every day RFK Jr. and his cronies continue to prove they are corrupt, and that he is unfit for any office (BTW there is another scandal brewing about how Jr. claims he is a NY State resident but has been using the address of a friend in Westchester County as his residence, despite the fact that it's pretty clear he doesn't live in this residence and is in fact a CA resident with his actress 3d wife). Yet if you believe the polls, he has something like 15% of the popular vote nationwide. One can only hope the existing polling is correct that Jr. is hurting Trump slightly more than Biden at this point.

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THIS is what makes the Bulwark not just another pretty-faced Never Trumper group.

How Sarah & Co snagged this man I will never understand.

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My brother went to MIT and he was an audio designer. Maybe it’s because he was my half brother that the association with MIT didn’t make me an audio sound designer. Unlike genius djturd, who is a genius because a relative of his worked at MIT in the 1940s.

Time has marched on fat donny. You sure have no MIT in you.

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RFK must be spinning in his grave as if on a spit at the pale shadow of a man his namesake son has become. So must JFK, Teddy, and the uncle RFK jr. never met, Joe, who died in WWII during Operation Aphrodite.

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This is entertaining, to be sure.

However, under the American EC system, a majority of electors is needed to win outright. Without a majority, the election goes to Congress voting by delegation. Accordingly, success by a third-party candidate is all but impossible.

More specifically, particularly in a three-way contest, a third-party candidate is not likely to win a majority of the electors. Moreover, without a large base of party support in Congress, they aren't going to garner the votes of a majority of the states. The best for which they can hope is to be a spoiler for one of the main party candidates. If the third-party candidate gets enough electors to deny a majority to either of the candidates, in light of the fact that, population notwithstanding, there are more GOP states than D states, that likely would throw the election to the Rs.

As an aside, as the Drafters did not anticipate the phenomenon of political parties, they did not generally expect one candidate to garner a majority of electors (after Washington, of course). Rather, the expectation was that Congress voting by delegation more often than not would choose the President.

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