By Olivia Turner | Arts & Life Editor
During the election season, an abundance of red and blue flood the ballots. However, the occasional third-party voter can be found sprinkled amongst the main two parties.
Voters belonging to the Libertarian Party, the Constitution Party and the Green Party to name a few often go third-party due to failure to align with either extreme of the two-party system, according to Dr. Aric Gooch, a professor of political science.
“Those votes can be meaningful if you’re hoping to send some type of signal,” Gooch said. “You’re really displeased with the two major parties, and you think that is the way you want to vote.”
According to a recent Gallup Poll, 58% of American voters believe a third party is needed.
Gooch said the two-party political system has been in place since the Civil War, with third parties pushing the Democratic and Republican Parties in different directions, but otherwise playing minor roles. He said he predicts third parties will never gain enough power to break the two-party system — at least not in the near future.
While third parties can bring issues to light, there’s a reason Democrats and Republicans are the dominant parties of the national political scene, Gooch said.
“Because there are only two parties, a positive is they do have to try to create a broad coalition to capture a majority and to win elections,” Gooch said. “And so the benefit of that is, we do have these parties that do try to find segments of the electorate to reach out to that they can’t find something to latch onto, to support that party.”
Round Rock senior and political science major Ryan Pascarella said that while he can admit he doesn’t believe former President Donald Trump has done “everything perfectly,” he feels he best aligns with the Republican Party due their immigration reform.
“I mean, the main thing that [voters] can do is just vote for the candidate that most represents their views and consistently vote on like those lines and continue to try and push candidates more towards their direction,” Pascallera said.
Gooch said his advice to voters caught in between the red and blue is that 100% alignment isn’t necessary to support any candidate.
“You have to determine what’s important to you [and] which party [most closely] aligns,” Gooch said.
Dr. Dave Bridge, a professor of political science, said focusing on specific issues or policies can be helpful in determining what is important to a voter in order to decide on a candidate.
“It’s entirely okay to be a single-issue voter,” Bridge said. “It’s entirely okay to vote based on the character of the candidates. All of those things are good cues and good reasons to show up to vote on Election Day.”
