Vote Splitting Quotes

A national party cannot win an election riding piggyback on the rebels of the rival party.

The Liberal Party of Canada, heading into an election, at the last minute they always stand up and they say: We know there's people out there that want to vote NDP and God love you. But if you vote for them you're throwing your vote away.

The first time I ran for office in 2002, running for governor in Massachusetts against Mitt Romney, we actually worked with a Democratic legislator to file that bill, so that there would be no risk of splitting the vote. The Democrats had about 85% of the Legislature at that time. They could have easily protected their access to the governorship. But they refused to do so. They wouldn't let the bill out of committee.

I am not interested in splitting the white vote.

The Republican high command thinks that Henry Wallace will take so many votes away from the Democrats, and so little from the Republicans, that it does not matter what the Republican Party does. Victory will be theirs, they assure themselves. When any political party gets this feeling, it is time for that party to beware.

I didn't realize that running as an independent would be perceived as a threat to the Democrats.

Gerrymandering is not hard. The core technique is to jam voters likely to favor your opponents into a few throwaway districts where the other side will win lopsided victories, a strategy known as “packing.” Arrange other boundaries to win close victories, “cracking” opposition groups into many districts.

It was obvious after the '97 election that as long as there were two small-c conservative parties trying to destroy each other, the Liberals would win every election.

If the 1992 and 2000 elections were any guide, third-party candidates are death on the mainstream parties with which they're most naturally aligned.

Let's not just look at it as taking votes away from Gore. Our support comes from a lot of people.

This is where the question always come up, "Aren't you going to split the vote?" To which the obvious answer is: Well let's just rank peoples' choices. This is a voting system we use across the country, from San Francisco to Portland, Maine, and the Twin Cities. It's used very successfully in single-office elections like mayor. It could be used for governor.

I told Mr. Nader today that a vote for Ralph Nader is really a vote for George Bush.

If I'm fortunate enough to get the nomination of the Constitution Party, I will take as many votes from Obama as I would from the Republican nominee.

You go into the voting booths and you can rank your choices. So your first choice is an underdog that might not win, you know, that your choice number two, which might be your lesser evil, your safety choice, your vote is automatically reassigned from your first choice to your second choice if your first choice losses and there's not a majority winner. So it essentially eliminates, splitting it, eliminates having to vote your fear instead of your values.