https://play.ht/articles/b5016d344a21

I was scrolling through Facebook and came across a friend’s post. Upon reading it, I had a few thoughts, the most alarming of them were, he’s either going to decide not to vote or vote for a third-party candidate, which equates to the same, and that is a dangerous thought to have, and even more to actualize now more than ever before.

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Let me explain the bit about this third-party thing

Although the U.S is technically a multi-party system, remember the green party? Or Libertarian party? and snooping around the California Government Voter Guidance website, I found a few more names: American Independent and Peace and Freedom Party, we are really a de facto two-party system.

The winner-take-all methodology the electoral college favors make the U.S a country where only a major party can win. This written rule leaves any third-party candidate an automatic loser in any substantial election, such as the presidency. Unfortunately, it also leaves any voters who wish to see someone completely different‑like my Facebook friend — leading local, state, or nationally dissatisfied.

What a third-party candidate can do, whether intentional or accidental, is become a spoiler candidate. This term describes a non-winning candidate whose ballot presence can affect the election results. However, third-party candidates don’t care much for this term and see themselves as a fresh alternative to the two career politicians who can’t seem to know what the voter wants.

Changing the Electoral College

On fairvote.org, in their article ‘Past Attempts at Reform,’ the website talked about the attempts at changing the electoral college; the winner takes all system and the alternative to our current voting method for a ranking system process called Rank Choice Voting (RCV). This system will give more voting power to the voter and result in the candidate with the most support winning.

Political leaders throughout history have made over 700 attempts to abolish the electoral college or change the current voting method, and as of now, it has not passed. Since the electoral college is part of the constitution, changing it would require a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate or a constitutional convention called for two-thirds of the State legislatures. I’m not saying that it will never pass, but it will take some time. For now, we have what we have—the electoral college and winner take all system.

The electoral college is not wrong, per se. The founding fathers saw it as a compromise between 100% popular vote elections and 100% congress picked elections since they thought the average citizen might not be informed enough to make the correct decision when choosing a candidate. Now in this new age of technology and probably too much information, this may not be the case.

While it is not entirely wrong, the electoral college is not foolproof, and it leaves gaps where electoral voters may choose to divert from their duties. In theory, the electors take a pledge to cast a vote for the candidate that garner the popular majority for that particular state. We know that this doesn’t always happen, which results in faithless electors, whom the states must impose some financial fine afterward for violating the pledge mentioned above. I doubt this does much to dissuade others from doing the same, and I’m sure we will have cases of faithless electors in future elections. Nonetheless, this is our current system.

Kanye; the Spoiler Candidate

Recently the news flooded with a surprise third-party contender for the 2020 presidential election; celebrity Kanye West. In an interview featured in billboard magazine, he admitted that the Republican party helped him gain the necessary signatures to have his name in the ballot for one of the swing states, Wisconsin. While he didn’t admit that he is running to spoil the Democratic contender’s chances, my spidey senses are telling me he is. As a rapper/celebrity with his feet in the urban market and recently gospel market, he attracts Black Americans and Latinos to his base. The majority of these two ethnic groups are Democrat voters, and if they share the sentiment that neither of the two main party candidates is worth their vote, they may vote for Kanye.

Because a candidate must win 270 out of the 538 electoral votes, it is mathematically and logistically almost-impossible for a third-party candidate to win. Therefore, voting for Kanye is effectively taking the vote away from the main party candidate who would have gained that vote, had Kanye not run.

Hope for the future

As of 2020, one state has implemented RCV in state elections — Maine — and eight others at their local jurisdiction level. Once I do the math, that leaves 41 left to follow this trend. Perhaps once the other states adopt RCV, congress may garner enough support to pass the constitutional amendment and effectively change the current voting system.

But we are not there yet. Casting a vote for the spoiler candidate is the equivalent of not voting. With this in mind, I encouraged my friend to cast his vote for one of the two main party candidates, whom most closely aligns with his believes, because until we can fix the current voting system, we need to play within the current board game. This way, he can ensure his vote counts.

While I was encouraging my friend to vote on social media, I made it a point to encourage my family to vote.

I recently moved, and upon receiving our furniture, and life-saving printer, we sat around the table and changed our mailing address with the DMV and filled out our voter registration cards. My son turned 18 this year, and this November, it will be his first time voting, and I am giddy because we will be voting as a family.

I don’t take this moment lightly because voting has always been important but now is crucial.

I am a first-generation immigrant, first, to achieve an undergrad, first to work towards a graduate, first to serve in the military. It is my duty and honor to vote, and I will do so as long as I am alive.

Please, encourage your aunties, primos, mom, dad, Abuela, to vote. Make it a family activity. We all need to vote.