Not Surprised I Side With Jill Stein

One of the mainstays of the Internet are self-check quizzes you can take. The ones I like are the political ones. The most famous is the “World’s Smallest Political Quiz” to find out if one is a Libertarian – I’m not by the way. Another quiz that actually can help one understand US politics today is the isidewith.com. You answer questions on various issues and as if by magic the quiz tells you which Presidential candidate your views align with. I wasn’t surprised mine were aligned with Jill Stein from the Green Party.

I side with Jill Stein on most issues in the 2012 Presidential Election.

I really wasn’t surprised that most of my views fit with Jill Stein. If the playing field was level then I would proudly vote for the candidate that best fit my political views. As the blog Plunderbund put it:

Since Obama is narrowly closer to the middle, the size of his voting block is ever so slightly larger. Now let us assume Jill Stein runs, and gets just 3% of the vote. This two percent will be the remote tail further left of Stein; the split of the swing votes doesn’t change. But the election winner does – Romney wins, 49% to 48% to 3%. So, despite being further from the median voter, Romney wins the election. Stein voters get the candidate least favorable. And, perversely, this is unlikely to have the desired effect of moving the Democratic party further left; they can gain more votes by moving closer to the middle, and taking votes away from the GOP candidates.

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If you are a liberal/progressive/Green in Ohio, unless you want a Romney presidency, you should be voting for Obama. As disappointing as that may be for you, it is the reality of the confluence of first-past-the-post and the Electoral College. Voting for a third party will not suddenly give us a situation where we have three viable choices. If you want more choice in elections, then you need to advocate for a system such as approval voting, IRV, or Schulze method (all of which have their advantages and disadvantages; there is no perfectly flawless answer).

Tactical Voting Guide

While I should vote for Jill Stein I can’t because I live in Ohio and it is more important to make sure Mitt Romney not win the state and possibly the Presidency.

As noted the best thing for those us who hate the “lesser-of-two-evils” elections is to vote and support those who want to change the rigged election system. 

One way to start is to Vote for Ohio’s State Issue 2 which would reform how congressional districts are drawn to give the voter more control on who represents us. This would force the two parties to have to work for who they represent not the ones who bribe fund them.

Then we need to reform the entire election system to remove the bias against third and more parties.