Member how long Aretha Franklins anthem was ? <| sep |> If enough voters support the same third party , then the third party wins . If some voters support a third party , but not enough , then the third party either spoils the election or fails to influence it entirely . Spoiling the election is a lot easier than getting elected , so people choose not to vote third party , which makes getting elected even less likely . You might notice that this is a positive feedback loop . On a more abstract note , factions win elections in the current system by coordinating with other factions to support the same candidate . This coordination problem is essentially equivalent to the original problem of choosing a public official , which is why we have partisan primaries we ' re using a crude divide and conquer algorithm , even though that ' s a terrible idea . Voting for a third party only makes sense in this context if increasing the number of candidates in each election works better than increasing the depth of recursion . It doesn ' t , which is why the tea party succeeds and the Green party fails .