Some thoughts befpre going to the polling booth tomorrow...

[sandwichwarrior]

One of the chief complaints made against the electoral college is that it encourages people to vote "tactically" rather than for a candidate that they genuinely like, out of fear of seeing their vote wasted

Comments

[hikarugenji]

I think both extremes with respect to 3rd party candidates are flawed.

The common idea that a vote for a 3rd party is either a "wasted vote" or a de-facto vote for the "other side" ignores the reality that some people honestly don't feel either candidate represents their positions at all, or cannot live with some of the positions. As you say, voting for a 3rd party at least lets the major parties know how a certain bloc of the population feels.

However, the reverse idea that everyone should vote their best choice regardless of whether it's a major or 3rd party ignores the way the system works. The way the Constitution sets up voting, if everyone votes for the party they like the best, the House of Representatives will end up picking the President every 4 years. From what I understand this was actually the intent of some of the founders -- they didn't like the idea of the people directly choosing the President so one of the purposes of the electoral college system was to create a situation where the people would essentially nominate candidates and then the House would choose from them.