not provide much support for the long-term viability of third parties, there is evidence that these parties can have a major impact on election outcomes. For example, Theodore Roosevelt’s third-party candidacy in 1912 split the normal Republican vote and enabled Democrat Woodrow Wilson to be elected with less than a majority of the popular vote. In 1992, H. Ross Perot’s candidacy attracted voters who in the main had been voting Republican in the 1980s and thereby contributed to the defeat of the incumbent Republican president, George Bush. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the leaders of both the Republican and Democratic parties have been extremely concerned about the impact of potential third-party or independent candidates. Public-opinion surveys during the run-up to the 1996 elections consistently showed a high level of support for a third party. A 1995 Gallup poll showed 62 percent of the public favoring the formation of a third party. It was sentiments such as these plus lavish campaign spending that enabled Texas billionaire Perot to gain 19 percent of the popular vote for president in 1992, the highest percentage for a non-major-party candidate since Theodore Roosevelt (Progressive Party) won 27 percent in 1912. In spite of demonstrations of potential support for a third party, imposing barriers exist to a third party’s winning the presidency or even electing a substantial number of senators or representatives. Among the most significant is the fear among voters that if they vote for a third-party candidate they will be in effect “wasting” their votes. Voters have been shown to engage in “strategic” voting by casting ballots for their second choice when they sense that a third-party candidate has no chance of winning. For example, in 1980 the centrist independent candidate, John B. Anderson, received votes of only 57 percent of the voters who ranked him highest; and in 1992 among...
