Same as before

Posted Oct 28, 2025 19:30 UTC (Tue) by mathstuf (subscriber, #69389)
In reply to: Same as before by marcH
Parent article: Python Software Foundation withdraws security-related grant proposal

> Absolutely pointless to have a 3rd or 4th option when votes for them have a near 100% chance to be discarded every single time.

There is some point: if a party gains some vote threshold (5%?), they are entitled to some federal funds for their party in the next election. The Reform party met it once, but then squabbled over it and threw it away. See this series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqqaW1LrMTY

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Same as before

Posted Oct 28, 2025 20:15 UTC (Tue) by marcH (subscriber, #57642) [Link] (1 responses)

That's a good funding rule (whatever the voting system is) and it's not nothing.

But I doubt "We won't have any seat any time soon but vote for us so we can survive" is compelling enough to win voters compared to: either choosing the lesser of two evils that do have some chance to get some seat(s), or just staying home and watching TV.

Also, campaign billions are now protected as free speech thanks to "Citizens United vs FEC". How many orders of magnitude smaller are these federal funds? Just curious.

Same as before

Posted Oct 29, 2025 3:29 UTC (Wed) by mathstuf (subscriber, #69389) [Link]

> But I doubt "We won't have any seat any time soon but vote for us so we can survive" is compelling enough to win voters compared to: either choosing the lesser of two evils that do have some chance to get some seat(s), or just staying home and watching TV.

Given the Electoral College, votes for the "other" party in a given state (for the President) are essentially "wasted" anyways, so if you're passionate about it and live in, say, Alaska, and would vote for the "D" party, why not toss a vote to a third party instead? Also in more "purple" states, many candidates are registered under multiple parties. For example, one can vote for candidate A as a Democrat or Working Families or candidate B as a Republican or Constitution.